The Central Government on Wednesday refused to give its approval for changing the name of West Bengal to ‘Bangla’ – a demand echoed by the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Speaking in the Upper House of Parliament, Minister of State Home Nityanand Rai denied that Government has cleared the name ‘Bangla’ for West Bengal as proposed by West Bengal Government. The government said that the Constitutional amendment is needed to change the name of a state.
The question was asked by Rajya Sabha CPI(M) MP Ritabrata Banerjee.
MoS Home Nityanand Rai (file pic) in Rajya Sabha denies that Government has cleared the name 'Bangla' for West Bengal as proposed by West Bengal Government. The question was asked by Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee. pic.twitter.com/m053FtSpj0
— ANI (@ANI) July 3, 2019
The West Bengal Assembly, had on July 26 last year, passed a resolution seeking to change the name of ‘West Bengal’ to ‘Bangla’. The resolution was later sent to the Union Government for the final approval.
Prior to this, there were similar attempts by the state government to change the name of West Bengal. Earlier in 2011, It suggested ‘Paschimbanga’, however, it was turned down by the central government.
Later in the year 2016, it proposed ‘Bengal’ in English, ‘Bangla’ in Bengali and ‘Bangal’ in Hindi, However, that too failed to get government’s approval. Later and Finally, it proposed the name ‘Bangla’ in July last year.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had in December last year slammed the Union Government for obstructing the name change. In a Facebook post, Mamata Banerjee slammed the Centre saying that it has itself changed names of historical places “unilaterally” to “suit their own political vested interests.”
TMC Supremo added that ‘Centre is totally ignoring West Bengal even when our Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution to change the name of the state to Bangla.”
It should be noted that it was in the year 2011 when it was the last time the name of a state was changed when Orissa became Odisha.
Bombay was renamed Mumbai in 1995, Madras as Chennai in 1996 and Calcutta as Kolkata in 2001. The central government had in 2014 approved name changes for 11 cities in Karnataka, including that of Bangalore to Bengaluru.