Barely before the dust settled from the ‘public swearing-in’ of the Neiphiu Rio led People's Democratic Alliance (PDA) government on March 9, its first cabinet meeting has already played its card with a slew of announcements.
Most announcements were prospective, but two were immediate - the measures to rein-in ‘VIP culture' by banning the use of names and designation plates on government vehicles, and the renaming of Indira Gandhi Stadium in Kohima.
The renaming of the stadium to ‘T Ao stadium’ is to be carried out in memory of first Naga Olympian Dr Talimeren Ao to “coincide with the centenary year of the sports legend.” Dr T Ao, no doubt, deserves recognition of repute in his memory. The present populist action, however, is conspicuously symbolic and unmistakably has the Bharatiya Janata Party’s stamp, a coalition partner in the ruling PDA.
Names are intensely political in India. There has been a noticeable renaming of places, monuments, schemes or roads over the years and political parties pursue them fervently. In another instance, a name can be used to legitimise or delegitimise others and such politics of (re)naming has received focused attention after the assumption of BJP to power at the centre.
However, the BJP alone cannot be faulted for this mania. The identities of Indian cities and places have seen countless changes since Independence. The most notable one are Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru. When Gurgaon was changed to Gurugram last year in Haryana, a report in The Hindu informed that Karnataka led the renaming of major cities with 10, followed by Kerala with 3.
A report in The Times of India elucidated that even the naming of the country as ‘Bharat’ was hugely debated in the erstwhile Constituent Assembly. Again, after long debate, the proposal to put Bharat before India in the Constitution of India was defeated by 51-38 votes. The Article (1) of the Indian Constitution, therefore, read, “India, that is Bharat, shall be Union of States."
The Congress, after Independence, for decades had a free rein in naming and renaming government welfare schemes, buildings, airports and roads after political figures. In May 2012, the then United Progressive Alliance Government told the Parliament that out of the 58 central schemes christened after eminent persons, 16 schemes, or 27%, were named after Rajiv Gandhi and eight after Indira Gandhi, the report said.
The party infatuation with christening central schemes or places after iconic leaders, however, was not lost to BJP. It goes on a renaming spree after it came to power in 2014.
On June 15, 2017, Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor claimed that 23 of the BJP-led government’s new programmes were merely renamed versions of schemes launched by the previous UPA Government and the Party has been often charged of 'renaming, re-packaging, re-launching' previous development projects. Independent fact-check by FactChecker.in, which scrutinizes and researches veracity and context of statements made by individuals in public life, showed that Tharoor was right on 19 counts.
In neighbouring Assam, after BJP assumed power, the government renamed all major Guwahati roads. The government after courting major controversy and being accused of ‘cultural imperialism’ rescinded its decision to set up a number of new model colleges named after Jan Sangh leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. The BJP led Government in Tripura, right after assumption of power, has reportedly decided to rename the Agartala Airport after Tripura King.
In Nagaland, the divergence over nomenclature has often resulted in inter/intra tribes and villages conflicts.
The politics of names and renaming, at best, is an indolent way creating an impression that something has been achieved without really doing any deeds.
The new alliance would do well to focus its energy on achieving other tangible changes as promised rather than a mere symbolism. Let the renaming mania stop here till then.
