The country’s leading problem is that everything gets political. Even a national occasion like Republic Day, celebrating since 1950 the declaration of India as a sovereign republic, gets mired in politics. They say all politics is local politics and it became just that in Tamil Nadu where all the tableaux at the parade on Marina beach carried portraits of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, a politician convicted in a disproportionate assets case and currently on bail.
While the concept of “leader puja” can be questioned and debated in a country famous for its worship of personalities, the portrait of a leader currently under a cloud being displayed like this is regrettable. Politics does not always make good sense. Even so, the way the Republic Day celebrations were handled, with 13 states, including Tamil Nadu and all Union Territories, going unrepresented on Rajpath, revealed basic disunity rather than true promotion of nationalistic fervour.
By an extension of the Tamil Nadu logic, the themes displayed on tableaux from prominent BJP-ruled states could all have carried the Prime Minister’s picture. That they did not, even if they projected mostly the favoured schemes of his government, was the only saving grace. In front of the chief guest, US President Barack Obama, such a display of national sycophancy would have been that much harder to digest. Of the states other than the 16 allowed to present their tableaux, West Bengal made the most noise about discrimination.
