During the Republic Day Parade this year at the Kartavya Path in New Delhi on Sunday, West Bengal’s tableau will showcase ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ and ‘Lok Prasar Prakalpa’ as themes, in a bid to highlight the “empowerment and self-reliance” in Bengal, sources said on Friday.
This comes at a time when the Centre and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal are at loggerheads with each other over several issues. This year, the Ministry of Defence accepted the state’s proposal for a tableau during the Republic Day parade.
According to sources, at the front of the tableau there will be a Durga idol – on a lion – dressed as a Chhau dancer, representing woman empowerment. There will also be a kalas (big pitcher) that will represent the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’ scheme and the name of the scheme will be written on the Kalas. Baul songs and Chhau dance will also be showcased.
Many see the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, which is the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the “trump card” that contributed to her party’s clean sweep victory in the Lok Sabha elections last year. The scheme was launched in February 2021 for women aged between 25 and 60 years. The aim of the scheme is to provide a monthly income to women, contributing to making them independant.
Under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme, a beneficiary from general category and SC/ST category receives Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200 a month.
The Lok Prasar Prakalpa (LPP), another pet project of Banerjee, was introduced by the department of information and cultural affairs. The main objectives of this scheme is to boost the morale and dignity of folk artistes by giving them identity cards, to bring to the fore traditional folk forms of Bengal, to revive the nearly extinct folk forms of art and culture and to uplift the socio-economic conditions of the artistes associated with folk culture.
The scheme was started in 2014. The state government provides a monthly retainer fee of Rs 1,000. Those artistes who reach 60 years of age will get a monthly pension of Rs 1,000. Around 1.81 lakh artistes have been getting retainer fee or pension from the government.
A senior state government official said, “Last year, the Centre cancelled the tableau proposal of the state government. They said the state government can’t showcase any state scheme in the tableau. This time they accepted the tableau of “Lok Prasar Shilpo” and also the proposal to showcase “Lakshmir Bhandar Scheme”. We are happy and decorating the tableau is almost complete.”
In 2024, the Centre rejected Bengal’s proposal to highlight the Kanyashree scheme. According to sources last year the tableau proposal of West Bengal was considered in the first two rounds of meetings of the Expert Committee. After the second round of meetings, the tableau of West Bengal could not be taken forward by the Expert Committee for further consideration for “not aligning with the broader themes.”
The last time Bengal’s tableau was allowed for the Republic Day Parade in Delhi was in 2023, when the theme was Durga Puja.