Telangana misses deadline for Republic Day tableau ideas

Hyderabad: Telangana will be once again missing its presence in the Republic Day parade in January in New Delhi as the department of culture had failed to send proposals in time.

The Union Government has proposed three specific themes for 2023 Republic Day Parade tableaux -- India@75, International Year of Millets, and Nari Shakti. Telangana has been in the forefront both in terms of promoting Nari Shakti and millets.

It is learnt that a letter to the state government from the Union Defence Ministry asking them to present designs and proposals for the Republic Day tableaux was sent. The theme could be either one of the three or a combination of all the three. September 30 was the last date to submit the proposals.

While the officials were not willing to explain the reasons for not sending the proposals, sources said that perhaps there was some miscommunication between some important departments, officials and the ministry.

The letter from the Union Government was sent to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and the same was forwarded to the Department of Culture. But the officials in the department, it is said, did not alert the minister who was on an official tour at that time.

Sources said that the minister expressed anger for not giving him an update about the letter and the proposal to be finalised before the deadline. However, officials did not respond to explain what exactly went wrong or was it a government policy to keep away from participating in the parade.

Even since the formation of Telangana in 2014, the Telangana Government's tableaux have been selected only twice; 2015 and 2020. The theme of the state's tableaux in 2020 was the floral festival of Bathukamma along with Sammakka Sarakka Jatara deities with the Thousand Pillar temple in Warangal. In 2015, the tableaux theme was Bonalu festival. The famous Golkonda Fort was also depicted on the tableaux.