The Mamata Banerjee government has changed the foundation stone laid by late chief minister Jyoti Basu from the gate of Yuba Bharati Krirangan, the stadium in Salt Lake, in Kolkata where U-17 football world cup is being held.
The foundation stone was laid by the Basu, the longest serving chief minister of India, in 1981. The stadium was completed in 1984. When it was set up it was the largest football ground in Asia and second largest in the world in terms of both seat capacity and area.
The present government has reduced the seat numbers from 1.2 lakh to around 70,000 as part of the preparation for U-17 world cup. Grasses were brought from America and were grown in Bangalore before being planted in Salt Lake stadium.
With the renovation, West Bengal government has also removed the plaque, which had the name of Basu in it, at the entrance of the stadium. It has been replaced with another plaque with Mamata Banerjee's name. Thee are plenty of pictures of Mamata Banerejee all around the stadium.
The CPI(M) took a strong exception to the changes made by the state government. Though they did not decide to oppose it on the street, party secretary Surya Kanta Mishra tweeted, "I strongly condemned the manner in which West Bengal government removed the foundation stone carrying the name of Jyoti Basu. Trinamool Congress is in competition with BJP and RSS to change the history."
Senior ministers of West Bengal government decided not to say anything about it.
"It's a very small matter. It's not so important either," said a cabinet minister.
This is not for the first time Mamata government downplayed Basu. Earlier in 2011 it also changed the name of the eastern metropolitan bypass in Kolkata, which was named after Basu after his death by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government.
"We cannot criticise the government for doing so. We are communists and we are not believing in names. Let them do whatever they want to do with naming the streets or foundation stones plaques," said a secretariat member of CPI(M).
