Karnataka tableau to participate in Republic Day parade

After public outcry for dropping the Karnataka tableau from the Republic Day parade, the Ministry of Defence Thursday shortlisted it for participation.

In a letter to the Chief Secretary of Karnataka, the Ministry said, “The tableau proposal of the State Government of Karnataka has been shortlisted by the Government for participating in the Republic Day Parade, 2023.”

Karnataka’s tableau 'Nari Shakti' theme depicting women power of state was finally selected.

With the deadline for preparing tableau being 19th January, the state has only 7 days to prepare it.

Earlier, Karnataka had sent four proposals: millet, floriculture, sericulture and Nari Shakti. During the process, Nari Shakti, which depicts power of women where three Padma awardees from the state: Salumarada Thimmakka, Tulasi Gowda (both noted for their works in environment) and Sulagitti Narasamma, midwife, were seen, went to sixth round of selections. However, finally the state's proposal was dropped, and a Kerala tableau with a similar theme was selected.

Dropping the state tableau took a political turn with Opposition Congress and JD(S) attacking the BJP government in Karnataka saying its inaction has caused this. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai requested Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi to intervene on the issue. Joshi, sources informed DH, spoke to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and requested him to include the state tableau.

Joshi is also learnt to have appraised the Union Minister about the need to include state tableau as the issue has already taken political turn since the state is facing assembly elections in four months. "With the Opposition Congress and JD(S) making it a big issue, the BJP doesn’t want to take any chance,” said a leader from the BJP.

"Karnataka is the only state where the BJP has a strong presence in South India. So such a small issue should not harm the party's prospect in the state as BJP is eyeing to return to power again this year," the leader said.

Earlier, the Defence Ministry had said that this time, they wanted to give preference to those states who got least participation in the last eight years. Since Karnataka tableau had got an opportunity to participate continuously for 13 years in the parade, the state was dropped and preference was given to those states which have not participated.

Last year, both West Bengal and Kerala strongly objected to dropping them and blamed the NDA government ignoring them for non BJP states. Interestingly, in this year both states tableaus for selected.