Flipside: Dilip Bobb

Another Republic Day has marched past, having succeeded in portraying India's political might and the country's colourful diversity. This year, however, being the first Republic Day of the new millennium, it was decided to reverse the order. In short, to project India's colourful might and its political diversity. That innovation managed to produce some interesting tableaux. Here's a pick of the best.

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The Trishul Anti-Hijacking Weapon System: Designed to Singhal-handedly neutralise any future attempts to hijack Indian commercial aircraft. Developed by the VHP (Venomous Hindu Power), it is based on the assumption that all Indian Airlines pilots are cowards, as stated publicly by VHP's Supreme Being, Ashok Singhal. The tableau showed a hijacked plane being stormed by Singhal (a.k.a. Anti-Hijacking System) who disarms the hijackers and frees the passengers. The tableau carried a sign informing the public that this should not be mistaken for a Bollywood movie scene and any such resemblance is purely coincidental.

The Indo-Pak Tit For Tat, Knee-Jerk Missile: Jointly developed by both countries, it was the most crowded tableau at the parade. It paraded all the ISI and raw agents allegedly blamed for committing heinous acts on both sides of the border. Specially those for which the real culprits had not been traced. The tableau also included the number of diplomats expelled by both sides in the past few years under the convention called "turning the tableaux". Of course, that meant that this particular tableau stretched the length of Rajpath, not to mention the imagination.

The Power of Reforms Tableau: Intended to show the massive strides made in infrastructure in the post-reform era, the tableau portrayed a group of engineers and linesmen from the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board. Striking a patriotic pose and doing a short circuit, they waved colourful banners and shook their fists in the air to show how much progress is possible: mainly the audacity to demand higher wages while incurring massive losses.

The State of the Nation Tableau: Also known as the Agni Three, it featured George Fernandes, L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh as being representative of the state of the nation. In other words, whether it was hard or soft. The public was eager to know the facts but couldn't tell since the three leaders were hidden behind heavy security.

The Hope of the Nation Tableau: Based on the assumption that the future lies in the hands of the youth, it showed leaders and office-bearers from all the leading political parties. They included Jyoti Basu, Natwar Singh, Harkishen Surjeet ...

The 50 Years of Progress Tableau: Projected details of the progress made by the country in the past half century. However, the crowds that had come to watch the parade complained that it was impossible to tell what these details were since the entire stage was shrouded in red tape. Organisers later said there was nothing wrong since that was the intention and they had been ordered to do so in triplicate by some higher authority.

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	Feb 7, 2000