"Old Tricks": Government Sources On States vs Centre Over R-Day Tableaux

The Chief Ministers "perhaps have no positive agenda of their own" and "they have to resort to the same old trick using misinformation year after year", the sources said.

It is a "wrong precedent adopted by the Chief Ministers of states to portray an outcome of an objective process as a flashpoint between the Centre and the states", central government sources said amid furore over the exclusion of Bengal and Tamil Nadu's tableaux from the upcoming Republic Day Parade and the Chief Ministers writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an intervention.

Accusing the states of "projecting" the exclusion as "an insult", the sources said, "We have recently seen letters being written by state Chief Ministers about the exclusion of their state's tableaux in the Republic Day Parade. This is unmistakably linked to regional pride and projected as an insult to the people of the state by the Central Government. This script also plays out almost every year.

"This is a wrong precedent, adopted by Chief Ministers of states to portray an outcome of an objective process as a flashpoint between the Centre and the states. This goes a long way in harming the country's federal structure."

The Chief Ministers "perhaps have no positive agenda of their own" and "they have to resort to the same old trick using misinformation year after year", they added.