DELHI: The latest to have fallen prey to India’s city renaming spree is Hyderabad.
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Yogi Adityanth said his party would change Hyderabad’s name to Bhagyangar, Times of India reported.
Addressing a gathering in the old city, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said it is important to cut the city’s terrorist links which only a BJP government could achieve.
“BJP has taken up the mantle of establishing Ram Rajya and Telangana too should play a role in this,” said Adityanth.
“And if you are keen to rename Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar, then vote for BJP.”
He told the crowd electing BJP is the only way to end terrorism.
“All terror attacks have some link with Hyderabad. Had Muslim appeasement not been part of our politics, such terrorist activities would not have taken place. While Congress feeds biryani to terrorists, BJP feeds them bullets.”
In October, the UP government changed the name of the historic Indian city of Allahabad to Prayagraj.
“The city used to be known as Prayagraj since the beginning. To those who are opposing the decision, how would you feel if the name your parents gave you was to be changed,” Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh told media.
Allahabad, the ancestral home of the Nehrus, is also the venue of the Kumbh Mela — a mega Hindu festival that attracts millions. Doing away with the Mughal-era name of the city has been a longstanding demand of Hindu nationalists.
The Mughals, according to them, were outsiders. The overwhelming majority of the officially-secular nation’s political parties, however, emphasise its composite culture.
The move is by no means unprecedented. Under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, names dating back to the Mughal era have been changed. In 2017, the Mughalsarai Railway Station was renamed after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.
Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma said more would follow. “It is the right of the government to rename any city. If needed, we will rename more cities and roads. The mistakes done earlier will be rectified.”