Renaming of Mughal Gardens as Amrit Udyan is a convenient way of making a nationalist statement

Renaming of Mughal Gardens at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi as Amrit Udyan has resulted in reactions from various quarters on expected lines. The new name has been given by President Draupadi Murmu as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav festivities to mark 75 years of India’s independence, Deputy Press Secretary to the President Navika Gupta told reporters on Saturday. Typically, the Bharatiya Janata Party has lauded the move, with spokesman Sambit Patra calling it a “historic decision” of the Narendra Modi government that was needed to “come out of ‘slavery mentality’.” Law minister Kiren Rijiju saw the rise of New India in it. The Opposition, also expectedly, slammed the renaming of Mughal Gardens. Who knows, they might now want to rename the Eden Gardens and call it Modi Gardens, Trinamool Congress’ Parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien told a news agency. CPI general secretary D Raja saw “the RSS’ agenda… to rewrite Indian history and redefine nationhood” in the decision.

There is no doubt that the BJP Govts at the Centre and in states are in overdrive in changing the names of places, buildings, etc., in their bid to present themselves as true and staunch nationalists, to instill pride in people about the glorious past. Besides, renaming is the easiest exercise; a government need not do any real work for the benefit of the people to rename a town or garden. Sometimes, renaming is also done to score political points and needle the Opposition. For instance, the names Gandhi and Nehru have been removed from several government schemes and places.  It should, however, not be forgotten that the BJP, though the most active player of the game of symbolism, is not the only one. The Congress actually began the game. In 1995, the Congress government, at the behest of its MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, changed the name of the iconic Connaught Place (CP) to Rajiv Chowk and Connaught Circus to Indira Chowk. In 2004, in his capacity as petroleum minister, Aiyar got a plaque on RSS ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the Cellular Jail premises in Andaman and Nicobar Islands removed. For Aiyar, as for the BJP, such decisions are ideological and political rather than rational. But then reason is increasingly playing a smaller role in politics; concomitantly, irrationality is growing by the day. When the BJP is in power, it removes the names of Gandhi and Nehru from schemes and places; when the Congress comes to office, it humbles Hindutva heroes. Such puerility cannot be allowed to continue. It is time political leaders across party lines considered the possibility of a comprehensive policy. The objective should be to make nomenclature apolitical and sensible. It is not good for the nation if a name changing exercise is criticised as being biased against Muslims, but this is exactly what has been happening. The Govt must ensure that it doesn’t face such accusations in the future.