‘They stole my design’

As if it wasn’t enough that for the fourth year in a row, the Republic Day event’s host, Delhi, does not have a tableau in tomorrow’s parade, the city’s other pride — Commonwealth Games — has also got into a tableaux controversy. A Delhi based Tableaux designer Pralay Kumar Mukherjee has alleged that the Commonwealth Games (CWG) jhanki, set to be on Rajpath tomorrow, is a copy of his design. “I had submitted three models while pitching for the CWG tableau. They have now used a mixture of those designs on their own and turned it into a tableau costing Rs 1 crore,” says Mukherjee who has now approached the high court.

Lalit Bhanot, Games organising committee secretary-general, denied, “It is wrong to say that any designs were copied. Mukhejee submitted the designs but they were not selected by the defence ministry, which approves the tableaux designs. Also, the tableau cost is nowhere near one crore.”

With the Delhi tableau missing altogether and now CWG tableau marred by controversies, the issue is not going down well with Delhiites, eagerly awaiting the Republic Day parade.

Aniniditi Sharma, a student of Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies says, “It is sad that the Capital does not have its own jhanki at the Republic Day parade this year again. Delhi needs to buck up.”

Tarun Gupta, an IT Professional says, “First Delhi goes missing, and now the Commonwealth Games jhanki turns out to be a copycat... why are we hell bent on insulting our pride?’