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‘Revenge’: AAP vs BJP over Punjab, Delhi tableaux ‘rejection’ claims
On Thursday, AAP accused the Centre of not providing any reason for excluding Punjab's tableau.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday responded to the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) 'dirty politics' charge over the Centre not accepting Punjab's tableau for the Republic Day parade, saying chief minister Bhagwant Mann had been "shamelessly lying" over the matter. Meanwhile, AAP said the BJP government was trying to exact “revenge”.
Days after Mann accused the BJP-led Central government of discriminating against Punjab, the party today said the real reason for the rejection of the tableau was that it had the photographs of the chief minister and Arvind Kejriwal.
"The real reason for rejection of Punjab Tableau is that it prominently showed pics of Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann rather than Mai Bhago Ji or martyrs! Mann Sahab is shamelessly lying; and worst is he has surrendered Punjab’s sovereignty in the feet of Kejriwal. You made Punjab the slave of Kejriwal in the name of change," said Delhi BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj said Delhi's tableau hadn't been shown for three years in a trot.
"The Republic Day tableau of the country's capital, Delhi, has been rejected by the central government for three years... In 2022 the theme was 'Resolve 75' in which our design was rejected in the second round of meetings. In 2023, the theme was 'Nari Shakti' our design was again rejected, and in 2024, the theme is 'Viksit Bharat' and our tableau was again rejected irrespective of the education and health model of the Delhi government that was portrayed in the tableau... Even the Punjab government's tableau for the upcoming Republic Day parade has been rejected. The central government is trying to take revenge only from the AAP governments," he said.
On Thursday, AAP accused the Centre of not providing any reason for excluding Punjab's tableau.
"Not including the tableaux of Delhi and Punjab in the Republic Day parade shows the dirty politics of the BJP. BJP-ruled states like Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are consistently given the opportunity (to showcase their tableaux) in the Republic Day parade but like last time, Delhi and Punjab have been sidelined this time too," AAP leader Priyanka Kakkar said on Friday.
"The Delhi government wanted to showcase the health and education models in the Republic Day parade and demonstrate how much change has been witnessed through these models in Delhi in recent years, but unfortunately this was not allowed," added.
Mann on Wednesday said the government wanted to take the Punjab word out of the national anthem.
"If they have their way they will take out the word 'Punjab' from the national anthem," he told reporters in Chandigarh.
Delhi BJP secretary Bansuri Swaraj said that a committee of specialists decide on the proposals of the tableaux. She said the AAP was hiding the real reason for the rejection of their tableaux proposals.
"It is shameful that without telling reasons for rejection of their tableaux proposals, the AAP leaders are politicising the decision of a specialist committee," she said.
Swaraj alleged that all that the AAP governments have to show are stories of liquor scam, fake medicines scam, bungalow scam, drug sale in Punjab or ministers going to jail.
With inputs from PTI, ANI
