Superficial change

 Politicians have this uncanny propensity to believe that changing names of places is an achievement in itself and through it, convince themselves that they have brought so much change that people ought to be deeply grateful and not forget. The latest was the decision of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh which has decided to rename the famous city of Allahabad as Prayag. The BJP has every reason to justify the decision because the original name of Allahabad was Prayag. It was changed by Mughal emperor Akbar in 1583 and now about 435 years later, the city will be renamed by the UP government under Yogi Adityanath. If by changing the name of Allahabad into Prayag is going to solve all of UP’s myriad problems, then it should be welcomed. However it must be reiterated that changing names of places is no substitute for providing effective law and order, decent housing, hospitals, schools and infrastructure. When politicians have nothing else to show by way of achievements, they resort to this cheap gimmick. Therefore, if they make a habit of changing names without making the real changes that affect people’s lives, then it only exposes the quality of such politicians. There is a wide belief that renaming of places is a ruse by populist politicians to divert attention from the fact that they are doing nothing to improve people’s lives or, worse, are corrupt and inefficient. Even if Prayag is to replace Allahabad, many institutions known by the latter will remind the people about the folly because the old names continue to be used by a determined public, who were never consulted on the matter. Another important aspect is that changing names in all the official and unofficial documents involves a heavy expenditure. The actual expenditure incurred by the state in the change of the name of a city should be made public. Today UP may not be known for the dakus and dacoits of the yesteryears. UP is today known as the state where goons and killers don the khaki uniform. The BJP is not the only political party guilty of resorting to such gimmicks. In the past the government in Karnataka changed the name of Bangalore to Bengaluru while Poona was changed to Pune, Bombay to Mumbai and Calcutta to Kokata. Even Madras was also changed to Chennai and Trivandrum to Thiruvanthipuram. Though other parties renamed cities in order to highlight the original names, the BJP is likely to push for more than just that. In this regard there is every possibility that even Delhi could be renamed as Indrapastha(city of Indira) “thought” to be located somewhere near present day Delhi. The BJP had changed Aurangzeb road to Dr. A.P.J. Kalam road. It may replace most of the ‘Jawaharlal Nehru/Indira Gandhi/ Rajiv Gandhi’ places, or institutes etc into names that find favour with RSS. This name changing syndrome needs to be rationalized through some laid down procedures in order to stop the charade. In many countries cities have both local as well as international names. Rome, Milan and Florence are internationally known but locals call them Roma, Milano and Firenze respectively. So let the local people or the state people call it by their new names, but outside they may be known by the same names.