Priya Ramani
I dragged the husband to the Republic Day Parade in Delhi yesterday. He’s a parade veteran; his father has been parade commander on more than one occasion. Me, I’ve only caught the action on Doordarshan. But watching tiny figures scroll across the screen hasn’t ever done it for me. The bands and marching contingents were fantastic, I enjoyed every jingoistic minute and even began humming Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja. Even the Agni III missile was worth a goggle-eyed look.
But then they got to the cultural part of the Parade that essentially consisted of substandard folk/religious dances and floats from different parts of India.
What on earth was the government’s brief to the states?
Two states promoted wildlife reserves. Rajasthan did a boring Ranthambore Wildlife Park promotion and Assam did a Kaziranga ‘tableaux’ that consisted mainly of a menacing rhino with a mechanized head that moved from left to right accompanied, for some reason, by the growl of a tiger. There were also a couple of foreign tourists on an elephant (?!) and the elusive red panda (incidentally talking of Doordarshan and red pandas, the channel is airing a great documentary series Wild Adventures: Ballooning with Bedi Brothers every Sunday at 11am on DD National).
Fake foreign tourists also showed up on Uttarakhand’s adventure tourism float, where they sat prettily in a giant yellow raft and in Jammu & Kashmir’s houseboat, where one participant actually wore a curly blonde wig!
Some, such as Tripura and Bihar promoted handicrafts; others like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Kerala opted for things sacred. Madhya Pradesh was the only state that thought out-of-the-box and paid homage to homegrown freedom fighter Tantya Bheel.
So who’s in charge of making sure the states come up with something that’s worth the nation’s attention?
Does the culture part of the biggest Republic Day parade in the country equal an opportunity to promote state tourism? Is this poor show the effect of the importance we accord to regional culture? How many of us can speak as articulately about the music, dance and folk customs/traditions in the different corners of our country as we do about, say, Slumdog. I know I can’t.