The dragon fruit is not known to be among the most recognisable of fruits in India. But since Tuesday, it has been in the limelight after the Vijay Rupani government in Gujarat announced it would rename the dragon fruit as 'Kamalam'.
NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase on Wednesday said in a statement "The BJP has now started branding itself on fruits also. We fear that the time may be not far when they would start addressing Hindustan as Kamalastan."
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor attacked Rupani over the move and suggested the BJP constitute a "National Renaming Council". Tharoor tweeted on Wednesday, "Is the Gujarat CM competing with or mocking the UP CM? Suggest it would be best if the BJP govt constitutes a ‘National Renaming Council’ to keep these CMs occupied, considering that’s the only thing they’re good at, & save their states from misgovernance."
Tharoor appeared to be referring to previous attempts at renaming historical places, most notably by the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.
While announcing the plan for changing the name of the dragon fruit, Rupani had said there was no political motive behind the move.
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However, he said, "The name dragon fruit is not proper, and due to its name, one thinks of China. So we have given it the name Kamalam."
Rupani added, "Farmers say it looks like lotus and that is the reason we have named it Kamalam.” The lotus is the BJP's party symbol.
(With PTI inputs)
