No Tableau from Chandigarh in R-day parade at Rajpath

| | Chandigarh
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No Tableau from Chandigarh in R-day parade at Rajpath

Tuesday, 10 December 2019 | Nishu Mahajan | Chandigarh

Chandigarh’s tableau will be missing from the Republic Day parade at Rajpath in New Delhi for the fourth consecutive year. For, the Chandigarh Administration has failed to make it to the final selection round.

The Administration had this time proposed themes including Gardens of Chandigarh, Burail Jail and Sukhna Lake to the expert committee of Union Ministry of Defence for the Republic day tableau. However, the expert committee had asked the Administration to work on the theme related to unique architectural structure- Capitol Complex- in Chandigarh for the Republic day parade 2020.

Following this, the Administration had begun working to present Capitol Complex for the city’s tableau. But, the final design of Capitol Complex tableau failed to impress the expert committee and Chandigarh did not figure on the final list of participants.

Every year, the committee selects tableaus from different states and union territories depicting varied culture, festival and heritage of the country.

When contacted, Director Le Corbusier Centre Deepika Gandhi, who was part of the city’s panel working on tableau themes said, “Unfortunately, the city did not make it to the final round. We did not receive any confirmation from the MoUD.”

“This time, we had suggested themes including Gardens of Chandigarh, Burail Jail and Sukhna Lake but these were not approved by the expert committee. Infact, the committee had suggested us to work on theme related to architectural works like Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. Later, we had also presented the designs related to the Capitol Complex to the selection committee but the city was not selected in the final list,” she said.

Interestingly, the theme Capitol Complex and works of Swiss-born French Architect Le Corbusier for tableau has been rejected by the expert committee in the past.

In 2018, the Administration had proposed three themes including Rock Garden, Sukhna Lake and Capitol Complex but it was rejected by the expert committee as the theme for 2018 was the 150th birth anniversary commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi.

For the years 2015 and 2017 also, the Chandigarh Administration had failed to make it to the final selection round for Republic Day parade. During these years, the expert committee of Ministry of Defence had rejected themes conceptualized around works of Le Corbusier, Rose Festival, Doll Museum among others proposed by the Administration.

Notably, the Capitol Complex in Sector 1 here designed by famed architect Le Corbusier was given the status of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) world heritage site in 2016.The Complex comprises three epoch-making master-pieces namely Punjab and Haryana Secretariat, Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Legislative Assembly besides the monuments including The Open Hand, Tower of Shadows and Geometric Hill.

So far, Chandigarh’s tableau has participated in the Republic day parade on four occasions.

In the year 2014, the city’s tableau modeled around Rock Garden, a sculpture Garden created by late Nek Chand had participated in the Republic day parade after a gap of 13 years. In 2016, the Chandigarh’s tableau highlighting city’s architecture, elements of green and smart city had taken part in the parade.

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