No bias in tableau selection: Govt Sources

A day after Trinamool Congress and CPM claimed the Centre's rejection of the tableaux proposed by West Bengal and Kerala for the Republic Day parade was due to bias in the selection process, government sources said that allegations were baseless as the process of selection of tableaux was devoid of any intervention by the Centre and purely guided by rules, and time constraint.

"It is not the Union government which decides on the tableaux. The tableaux proposals are evaluated in a series of meetings of the expert committee of eminent people in the field of art, culture, sculpture, music, architecture, choreography, etc. The panel examines the proposals on the basis of theme, concept, design and visual impact before making its recommendations," a source said.