What’s in a name, Syama Prasad Mukherjee Port or Kolkota Port Trust?
By Vijaya Pushkarna
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or for that matter, any prime
minister or chief minister , can change the name of anything that is public, belonging to
the nation and built using the tax
payers’ money. All they need is a cabinet resolution which is not difficult to get. And by the same
right and the same way, a prime minister or chief minister in the distant
future can decide to rename it—the way Modi gave the 150-year old Kolkota Port
Trust a new name on Sunday. He announced that it would be the Syama Prasad Mukherjee Port, after the son of the soil founder of the Jana Sangh.
Naming buildings, airports, trains, institutions and even
government’s welfare programmes have all always been a matter of politics. A
couple of years ago, the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport was renamed—it
became the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. It could easily become the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ji
International Airport when one of our leaders feels we have not been
reverential enough to the 17th century warrior king.
Remember the renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj? And
Faizabad district to Ayodhya? Rajahmundry became Rajamahendravaram when the government
decided to change the names of almost two dozen places, along lines of Madras
becoming Chennai , Bombay becoming Mumbai and Calcutta Kolkota. The Home
Ministry gives the final okay to the renaming of towns and cities in
consultation with the ministry of railways, the postal department, and also the
Survey of India.
The reasons for changing names that people have lived with
and know, can never really justify the change. Almost all Indians who took
flights to Calcutta knew who Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was before the
familiar Dum Dum airport became Netaji
Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. One will never know whether Bose
felt more honoured that he had found his place in history –thanks to an airport
after him. But for those who see in him their hero, the renaming must have been
a matter of joy.
Only those taking the train from Delhi to Howrah would know
that the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction is actually what the whole
country knows to be the Mugalsarai Junction in Uttar Pradesh. The place became
a household name, along with Jhumri Talaiya,
thanks to Aakashvani!
The body of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya who was the
president of the Jan Sangh—the previous avatar of the Bharatiya Janata Party—was
found near the Mugalsarai station 51 years ago. The BJP was on the verge of
changing the name of the station when they were in power in Uttar Pradesh in
1992, but with the Babri Masjid demotion and subsequent fall of the Kalyan
Singh government, it did not happen. But again in power with Yogi Adityanath in
the saddle, Mugalsarai became Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya junction.
There are any number of such name change stories, each with
a reason that may not be unique. But my favourite story is of the name of a
tiny lake on the outskrits of Karnal in Haryana and midway between Delhi and
Chandigarh. From when it came into being, it was called Karna Lake after
the "Surya putra " from the Mahabharata.
When Haryana’s two Lals—Bansi Lal and Devi Lal—were fiercely running a race for the post of chief minister of Haryana in the 1960s, a former ICS officer B N Chakraborty was the Governor. The state that gave the country the phenomenon of “aya lal , gaya lal” had thrown up a hung assembly. Devi Lal went to the very proper , almost British in temperament Governor, with his flock. Chakraborty responded saying he was not a school master to count heads, and told Devi Lal to prove his majority on the floor of the house. That gave Bansi Lal time to organize the numbers. He became chief minister. And he renamed the Karna Lake. It became the B N Chakravarti Lake, and was developed as a state of the art pit stop for road travellers between the two capital cities.
When Haryana’s two Lals—Bansi Lal and Devi Lal—were fiercely running a race for the post of chief minister of Haryana in the 1960s, a former ICS officer B N Chakraborty was the Governor. The state that gave the country the phenomenon of “aya lal , gaya lal” had thrown up a hung assembly. Devi Lal went to the very proper , almost British in temperament Governor, with his flock. Chakraborty responded saying he was not a school master to count heads, and told Devi Lal to prove his majority on the floor of the house. That gave Bansi Lal time to organize the numbers. He became chief minister. And he renamed the Karna Lake. It became the B N Chakravarti Lake, and was developed as a state of the art pit stop for road travellers between the two capital cities.
But the lake must suffer an identity crisis. When Devi Lal
became chief minister later, it became Karna lake. And a few years later,
again, the B N Chakravarti Lake!
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