The practice of renaming cities is a good way to divert attention from the core problems

Political parties keep an eye only on the vote bank, then no matter what kind of handcuffs they have to adopt for this. Whether it is the issue of religion, the name of freedom fighters or the uprooting of dead bodies of history to change the names of cities. Political parties do not fail to use them to strengthen the vote bank. Leaders of political parties may not follow the path of morality, purity, transparency and ideals told by religion or freedom fighters, but they do not lag behind in getting involved in controversies and giving rise to controversies like naming for the benefit of votes. By dismissing a public interest writ petition filed for the purpose of looting accolades and polarizing votes under similar guise, the Supreme Court has proved that the country will not be benefited by giving rise to unnecessary controversies.

The petition was filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay. In which it was said that a naming commission should be constituted to find out the original names of historical and cultural religious places of the country and to remove the names of the invaders from their present names. It was also said in the petition that the Supreme Court should direct the Archaeological Department to publish the old names. Dismissing the petition, a bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagaratna said that it would revive the issues which could create ruckus in the country. While giving the verdict, the bench said that the history of the country should not be left to its present and future generations. Court said, Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. There is no fanaticism in this religion. The bench said that digging up the past would only lead to enmity. It is clear from this order of the apex court that there are vested political interests in renaming. Its purpose is vote based politics.

Instead of presenting a new picture of development and solution to the existing problems in the country, political parties have been capitalizing on such controversial issues to capitalize on public sentiments. In this, along with the national party, the regional parties are also not far behind. Since independence, 21 states have changed the names of a total of 244 places. Maximum 76 places have been renamed in Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu has renamed 31 places and Kerala has renamed 26 places. Maharashtra has also changed the name of 18 places. Since independence in Uttar Pradesh only 8 cities have been renamed. Since independence, the names of 9 states and 2 union territories of the country have also been changed.

To change the name of any city or district, first of all, it is very important for an MLA or MLC to demand from the government for this. The government does not change the name of any city without an official demand from an MLC or MLA. When the MLA demands, then the government looks at the public’s side and tries to know whether there is a need to change the name. With this, the proposal to change the name of the city or district goes to the cabinet. After passing the proposal in the cabinet, the decision to change the name of the city is sealed. After the proposal is passed in the cabinet, a gazette (memorandum) of the new name is made. The new name officially begins only after it is gazetted. Under this process, the district or city is named.

Instead of solving the problems of the cities, by making the name change an election issue, parties see a profitable deal to bake political breads on it. Whenever the name of a city or place is changed, it costs crores of rupees. The name change is merely a symbolic change in the city. This does not change the structure of the city’s development, except that some statues of the person after whom the city has been renamed should be installed. Common people have to pay a heavy price for this change. On an average, it costs up to Rs 300 crore to change the name of a city. If the city is big, then this amount can reach even 1000 crores.

This expenditure depends on the fame of any city in the country and the world, how much money will be spent on changing the name. Along with the new name of the city, the names of all the official places located there are changed. Then the name of a city changes. Whenever the name of a city or place is changed, it costs crores of rupees. This is because the changed name has to be changed everywhere. For example, when the name of a city is changed, then this new name has to be entered in all the documents. The new name is also written at places like railway station, bus station etc. Due to all these processes, crores of rupees are spent in changing the name. The expenditure incurred in changing the name is met by the tax paid from the hard earned money of the people. In such a situation, provision of this amount is made by cutting the budget of other important development schemes.

Not only this, in the greed of votes, political parties do not hesitate to go to any level to change the names of cities. Uttar Pradesh has been the most controversial on the name change of cities. Here the governments changed the names of the cities under their political agenda. As soon as there was a change of power, the new government changed the names of these cities again. Name change tussle between SP and BSP has been discussed here. Mayawati government had changed the names of 8 cities before the year 2012. Amethi was made Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, Hathras was made Mahamayanagar. Kanpur Dehat was made Rambai Nagar, Kasganj was made Kashiram Nagar. In the year 2012, the SP government returned all the old names. Hundreds of crores of rupees were spent in this exercise done for the sake of votes. It is necessary to crack down on anti-development politics by playing with people’s sentiments on the controversy over names. For this, a strict law should be made at the national level, otherwise, for the sake of their petty interests, the leaders will continue to air such useless issues, neglecting the public facilities.

– Yogendra Yogi