She says it commemorates the contributions of Netaji, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and others.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing “hurt and hurt” that the proposed tableau of West Bengal has been kept out of the Republic Day parade.
“I am deeply shocked and hurt by the decision of the Government of India to abruptly exclude the proposed tableau of the Government of West Bengal from the upcoming Republic Day parade. It is even more shocking to us that the tableau has been rejected without assigning any reason or jurisdiction.”
Urging the Prime Minister to reconsider the decision, the Chief Minister said that it reflects the sacrifice and contribution of lakhs of freedom fighters and would be the most appropriate way to pay our respects and tributes on the 75th year of Independence.
The Trinamool Congress president said the tableau was “in memory of the contribution of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his INA 125th birth anniversary year and carried the portraits of some of its most illustrious sons and daughters – Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Deshbandhu”. Chittaranjan Das, Sri Aurobindo, Matangini Hazra, Nazrul, Birsa Munda and many more patriots”.
‘deep sorrow’
“I would like to inform you that all the people of West Bengal are deeply hurt by this attitude of the Central Government. Bengal was at the forefront of the freedom struggle and has paid the biggest price for independence by partition and uprooting lakhs of people,” she wrote in the two-page letter. He said that boycotting the tableau amounts to humiliating and weakening these freedom fighters.
The TMC leadership described the decision as a “continuous deprivation of West Bengal” by the central government.
On an earlier occasion, a tableau highlighting conditional cash transfer schemes like Kanyashree was kept out of the parade, resulting in strong criticism from the party.
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