NEW DELHI, Jan 23: The Republic Day parade this year will have only 12 state floats and nine central government department tableaux. Finishing touches are being provided to the 21 showpieces at the Rashtriya Rangshala camp in the Delhi Cantonment area.
“It was due to limited space and time that only 12 states were selected, an official spokesman of the defence ministry said. “So many states have raised their voice… the thing is, we have limited space, limited time. There is a committee of experts from arts, music, culture, and other expertise. The committee has been looking into these things. We received applications from 29 states and union territories to include in the tableaux. But due to space and time, we selected only 12 states. There is no other reason,” the spokesman said.
The Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala had written to the Prime Minister after their tableaux were not selected for the parade. The overarching theme for the tableaux is ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, which is meant to commemorate 75 years of Independence.
Several students are among the performers who will be part of the floats and have been camping at Rashtriya Rangshala.
Aditi Ural, a 20-year-old final-year degree student from Bengaluru, is among a group of 12 Yakshagana artistes who are part of the Karnataka State tableau. The team has been camping at the site and practising there for around 10 days now, and they are excited about performing at the parade for the first time, she said. Her father is a Yakshagana artiste, and she has been practising and performing for around 10 years.
Another performer who is at the parade this year is Nisha Kharayat, a college student studying music in Pithoragarh. She is among 16 dancers, mostly students, who will perform the Chhapeli Nritya of Uttarakhand.
The Arunachal Pradesh tableau will have 16 dancers performing the Tapu dance, which David Darang, a 33-year-old from East Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh, refers to as the “war dance”. Darang, a shop owner, said that they needed little training since it is a dance that is performed for festivals back home. Darang will also be at the Republic Day parade for the first time, part of the tableau that is based on the Anglo-Abor War in which the Abor people resisted British expansion.
Other states that will be part of the parade are Meghalaya, whose tableau will pay tribute to women-led cooperative societies and self-help groups. Gujarat’s tableau will focus on the “tribal revolutionaries” of the State while the Haryana tableau will focus on the State’s contribution to sports.
The Uttar Pradesh float will showcase the Kashi Vishwanath Dham, and that of Goa will portray the area’s historical and natural attractions. Maharashtra’s biodiversity will be represented in the state’s tableau, and Punjab’s contribution to the Independence struggle will be on display. Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir are also part of the parade.
The ministries that will have their tableaux are the Ministry of Culture, which will display one on 150 years of Sri Aurobindo; the Central Public Works Department will have a tableau on Shubhash Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary; the Ministry of Education which will showcase a tableau on the National Education Policy. Tableaux of the Ministry of Law and Justice, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Textiles, Ministry of Jal Shakti, the CRPF, and the Department of Post, will also be part of the parade.
(Manas Dasgupta)
