New Delhi: The BJP’s recent spree of renaming iconic cities has come under attack from Om Prakash Rajbhar, an ally of the saffron party and and minister in the Yogi Adityananth cabinet.
Speaking to reporters, Rajbhar, who has lashed out at the BJP on several such issues, questioned if the party would now rename its Muslim leaders and ministers.
“The BJP changed the names of Mughalsarai and Faizabad. They say they were named after the Mughals. They have national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, UP Minister Mohsin Raza… 3 Muslim faces of the BJP, change their names first,” Rajbhar said.
“This is all a drama to distract the backward and oppressed whenever they raise their voices to demand their rights. No one else has given the things which Muslims gave. Should we throw away GT Road? Who built the Red Fort? Who built the Taj Mahal? Rajbhar added.
After the UP government renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj and Faizabad as Sri Ayodhya, demands have cropped up to rename Ahemdabad, Aurangabad, Hyderabad and Agra as well.
The latest demanded to rename Agra as ‘Agravan’ has been made by BJP MLA Jagan Prasad Garg in a letter to Yogi Adityanath. “The region was initially known as Agravan and finds such a mention in the Mahabharat. But in the course of time, the city was named as Akbarabad. Later, it became ‘Agra’, which has no specific meaning and thus its name should be revived to Agravan,” Hindustan Times quoted the MLA as saying.
The recent name changes have also come under attack from the Congress, which said people want jobs and safety of women more than the rechristenings.