1. Home
2. India

Mamata vehemently criticises Centre for delay in clearing proposal to rename West Bengal

Kashmir Times. Dated: 11/15/2018 2:48:04 PM

WEST BENGAL, Nov 14 (Agencies): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday came down heavily on the Centre for allegedly causing delay in clearing a proposal to rename West Bengal to "Bangla", a proposal unanimously passed by the state assembly in July this year. She added that the delay "clearly shows deprivation to the people of Bengal".
The chief minister slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing them of changing the names of historical places and institutions unilaterally for their own political vested interests.
CM Banerjee ended her statement asking who should decide the name of the state, if it should be a "political party with zero strength in the state" or the "unanimous resolution passed by the State Assembly in accordance with the Constitutional obligations and federal structure".
Taking to social media platform Facebook, the CM slammed the Centre saying, "Recently, I have been noticing that almost every day BJP has been changing the names of historical places and institutions unilaterally to suit their own political vested interests. After independence, there have been changes in the names of few states and cities, like Orissa to Odisha, Pondicherry to Puducherry, Madras to Chennai, Bombay to Mumbai, Bangalore to Bengaluru etc, keeping in view the sentiments of the state and local language. Those are genuine. But, in respect of Bengal, the attitude is totally different."
"Our Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution to change the name of our state on the basis of local sentiments related to our mother tongue, Bangla.
It was resolved that the name of the state be changed from West Bengal to Bengal in English, Bangla in Bengali and Bangal in Hindi and sent to the Union Home Ministry. However, the Union Home Ministry advised us to use the name Bangla in all three languages. Accordingly, our Assembly passed an unanimous resolution to change the name of the state to Bangla in all three languages and sent it to the Union Home Ministry again. But, it is pending there for a long, long time. It clearly shows deprivation to the people of Bengal," said CM Banerjee.
"Undivided Bengal had Kolkata as its capital. The National Anthems of two countries – India and Bangladesh were penned by our son of the soil, Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore. We love India and we also love Bangladesh and Bangla. Similarity of names should not create a hurdle. There is a Punjab in our neighbouring country as well as in India. Whether a political party with zero strength in the state will decide the name of our state Or the unanimous resolution passed by our State Assembly in accordance with the Constitutional obligations and federal structure should be respected? The people of Bengal must get a positive response immediately," she added.
On July 26, the assembly passed a resolution unanimously to change the name of the state to "Bangla" in the three most-spoken languages -- Bengali, Hindi and English -- and sent the proposal to the Union Home Ministry. Banerjee's government had proposed to rename the state on three earlier occasions.
It suggested "Paschimbanga" in 2011, which was turned down by the Centre. In 2016, it proposed "Bengal" in English, "Bangla" in Bengali and "Bangal" in Hindi, which too was turned down. Finally, it proposed the name 'Bangla' in July this year.