Bengal nukes its anti-bomb tableau

But today, a senior State Government official told The Indian Express in Calcutta, on the condition of anonymity, that the West Bengal Government had bowed down to the Centre’s pressure. According to him, the State’s tableau will not show the mushroom cloud symbolising a nuclear blast. “We planned to make it with fibre glass, but now we find it wouldmake the tableau too heavy,” the official said. But the dove would be there, he claimed.

Instead, the State’s tableau will now feature a group of singers and dancers. “But our theme remains No More Hiroshima’ and the literature to be distributed to explain our pageantry, would say so,” said the official. He said that the changes were not made under “political pressure”, but “purely for practical reasons.”

Bhattacharya wasn’t available for comment.

Sources in the Defence Ministry said that when the expert committee objected to the dove tableau, calling it “aesthetically poor,” the birds were replaced by an outstretched hand covering the mushroom cloud.

“Just a disembodied hand covering the mushroom cloud looks very bad. So the expert committee suggested some more changes. They have agreed to it and the matter has been amicably resolved,” a Defence Ministry spokesman said.