Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is the latest in the list which has been re-named as Sri Vijaya Puram.
Shah announced that Sri Vijaya Puram had an “unparalleled place in our freedom struggle and history” and symbolized the victory achieved in the freedom struggle.
In the case of Allahabad, the state government had cited the Vedas and Hindu epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, as sources of the name Prayagraj, saying that the city used to known by this name since ancient times before it was renamed by “invaders” who wanted to erase India’s glorious past.
Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad district, which shares municipal boundaries with Ayodhya city, was changed to Ayodhya in the same manner that of Allahabad’s renaming to Prayagraj.
Feroz Shah Kotla Cricket Stadium of Delhi is also on the list which was renamed to Arun Jaitley Stadium in honor of the late District Cricket Association (DDCA) chief and former Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Mughal Sarai, an iconic railway junction was renamed to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya – Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) founder – on August 5, 2018.
“Today is a very big day for the Bhartiya Janata Party as Mughalsarai station, where Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay was killed, has today been named after him. I am happy that under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership a memorial is being made after Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay,” Shah was quoted as saying in the media reports after the inauguration.
‘Rajpath’ in the national capital was renamed to ‘Kartavya Path’, which means the path of duty, by the the Central government.
In Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government changed the name of Gurgoan to Gurugram in April 2016. The state government citied people’s demand to rechristen the city to its historic name. The city was officially renamed Gurugram on April 12, 2016 and the neighboring Mewat district’s name was changed to ‘Nuh’.
There are more proposals put forward BJP leaders who have urged the Centre to change the names of Telangana capital Hyderabad to ‘Bhagyanagar’ and Gujarat’s Ahmedabad to Karnavati.
Last year, the BJP asked the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government to rename as many as 40 villages with names “associated with Mughal invaders” after artistes, freedom fighters and martyrs, including IB official Ankit Sharma and policeman Ratan Lal who were killed in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots.
