Politicising Republic Day

Over the last couple of years, Telangana has witnessed the unfortunate trend of the ceremonial Republic Day getting politicized. This is unprecedented, unwise, and smacks of political tactlessness to say the least. Last year, the KCR government canceled the ceremonial parade citing Covid-19 restrictions, and limited the celebrations to the Raj Bhavan. The state government sought to repeat the same action this year as well but was rapped on the knuckles by the Telangana state High Court. The matter should not have reached a point where judicial intervention was necessary, in the first place. The Telangana High Court rightly observed that celebrating a solemn occasion like Republic Day in a befitting manner is the bounden duty of all Constitutional authorities and told the Telangana government that it cannot choose to skip the event. The administration was directed to hold the ceremonial parade at a place of its choice, and given this leeway, the KCR government decided to hold the Republic Day celebrations with a parade at the Raj Bhavan venue with a guard of honor. From the early days of the current governor of Telangana, Dr. TamilisaiSoundararajan, relations between the KCR government and the Raj Bhavan have turned frosty. On more than one occasion, the Governor had aired her views publicly about the flouting of protocol, by the chief minister, ministers, and bureaucrats in the Telangana administration. On its part, the KCR government decided to brazen it out. Ministers have always denied that there was any breach of protocol and accused the governor of acting like a BJP stooge and crossing the line. The KCR government had also decided to skip the ceremonial governor’s address in the budget session of the assembly over the last couple of years, again something without a precedent. Run-ins between governors and state governments are not uncommon in contemporary India. We recently saw an ugly confrontation between the Tamil Nadu governor, R. N. Ravi, and the DMK in the Tamil Nadu assembly, wherein the DMK moved a resolution against the Governor, for skipping portions of a text prepared by the state government, forcing him to stage a walkout. This itself was considered unprecedented. The Kerala governor, Arif Mohammad Khan has expressed his deep resentment over many issues on several occasions, but so far scenes such as the one witnessed in the Tamil Nadu assembly have been avoided by the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala. The Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal did not see eye to eye with the then-governor and current Vice President of India, Jagdeep Dhankhar, to put it mildly. Similarly, the MVA government in Maharashtra and governor BS Koshiyari clashed on multiple occasions on various issues. However, there are certain solemn moments that are above politics and it is expected of politicians to transcend narrow differences for such occasions. Republic Day celebrations constitute one such important occasion. By bringing differences arising out of politics, into the sobriety of such a serious occasion, we would be doing injustice to the solemnity of the moment on which we pay our tributes to countless renowned, as also unsung heroes of our freedom struggle. Do we need the judiciary to remind us of this? This should be a moment of introspection for the state government, as also other politicians heading states in other parts of the country.