The BJP Government in Madhya Pradesh is preparing to change the names of numerous places at once, Zee News has reported. The places whose names are to be changed include Bhopal and Minto Hall at the capital city.
The government is planning to change the names of Bhopal, the city’s Minto Hall, Idgah Hills, Obedullaganj in Raisen district, Gairatganj, Begumganj, Gauharganj, Burhanpur, Sultanpur and other places. It is intended that the names are changed in one clean sweep.
The demands to change the names of the places have been gathering momentum for quite some time. BJP MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur had called for the names of Islamnagar, Lalghati, Halali Dam and Halalpura in Bhopal to be changed. Former Chief Minister Uma Bharti had made the same demand.
The protem Speaker of Vidhan Sabha Rakesh Sharma had also said that the name of Islamnagar in Bhopal should be changed to Gurunanak Tekri. The proposed name for Bhopal itself is bhojpal. Only days earlier, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had announced that the name of Hoshangabad will be changed to Narmadapuram and Nasrullahganj to Bhairunda.
Madhya Pradesh cabinet minister and BJP MLA from Indore Usha Thakur had said, “If something wrong happened in the past, and if somebody has evidence of that, then the Constitution permits us to correct those mistakes. If there is evidence, then the names of places should be changed.”
The restoration of ancient names of cities and towns has come to embody BJP rule since the advent of Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister. Since the Mahant of Gorakhnath Muth assumed the seat of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a host of places have had their names restored; the most prominent being Ayodhya. Other Chief Ministers have also followed suit.