Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Jan 27: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh hosted a lunch for the Jammu & Kashmir Tableau team members who had performed in the Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath in the national capital.
The team of artists, along with choreographers and musicians, have also been given appointment to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
The members of the team expressed their overwhelming joy at the support and encouragement offered by Dr Jitendra Singh and also the hospitality given by him. They said, this was the first-of-its-kind experience they had gone through and they were absolutely excited about it.
Pertinent to mention that, unlike on several earlier occasions, this was a rare Republic Day function at Rajpath, New Delhi in which the Jammu & Kashmir Tableau was primarily dominated by culture and art of the Jammu region and the face of the Tableau displayed Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan along with other monumental projects like world’s highest Rail Bridge in Reasi and institutions like AIIMS, IIT and IIM, which have come up in the region during the recent years under the Modi Government. The background music and lyrics were also based on Jammu’s popular folk songs, “Sadha-e-Jammu”, “Sadhi Bakhri Pehchan”.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Jitendra Singh said, in the last nearly eight years, a conscious effort has been made to provide equitable development and equitable attention to every region of Jammu & Kashmir. This has ignited confidence and self-esteem in every section of society and every region, he said.
Complimenting the members of the team for their distinguished performance, Dr Jitendra Singh said, he would like the people back home to understand the amount of effort, hard work and focussed preparation for several months, which had been put in for this performance. He also appreciated the perseverance and difficult competitive trial through which the team members had gone through for getting their Tableau included in the Republic Day programme at the national level.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, very few people are aware that entry of any State or UT Tableau in a Republic Day programme at national level has to go through different stages of competition and trial, and many States and UTs get excluded in the process and lose the opportunity to be included in the Republic Day programme. For this, he also complimented the hard work put in by the officials of the Department of Culture and consistent support rendered to them by the freelance groups engaged by them.
Dr Jitendra Singh had a detailed interaction with each of the members of the team individually and said they were the Cultural Ambassadors of the region. He assured each one of them every possible support for upgradation of their skill and performance.