In another move that appears like copying of Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government's decisions, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on Friday, announced that the Hoshangabad district/city, neighbouring Bhopal, will be now on called as ‘Narmadapuram’.
The UP chief minister had gone on a name changing spree in his state, especially targeting the Islamic sounding names of places. Prominent among the changes was the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj.
There have been similar demands from various parts of Madhya Pradesh as well, including capital Bhopal, but this is the first time CM Chouhan made a public announcement regarding change in name of a district.
Hoshangabad is named after Hoshang Shah (1406-365), the first ruler of Malwa sultanate of Central India, of which Hoshangabad was a part.
While speaking at the Narmada Jayanti celebrations in Hoshangabad on Friday, the CM asked the people present whether the name ‘Hoshangabad’ feels good to them. When the crowd responded in the negative, the chief minister went on to say that from now on the district/city will be known as ‘Narmadapuram’.
The name 'Narmadapuram' is after river Narmada that flows full bloom in the district and through the city of Hoshangabad. The river is considered holy.
He said the revenue division (including Hoshangabad, Harda and Betul districts) is already called Narmadapuram and earlier a proposal to call the Hoshangabad district/city as Narmadapuram was sent out to the Union government, but an approval was not granted. “We will send out an unanimous proposal again for changing the name to Narmadapuram and this time, Delhi will certainly approve,” the CM said.
There have been attempts to rename capital Bhopal as Bhojpal earlier, but the municipal corporation, where the Congress was in majority, did not approve the proposal. Recently, pro-tem speaker of state assembly Rameshwar Sharma had renewed the demand for renaming Hoshangabad as Narmadapuram and Idgah Hills in Bhopal as Gurunanak Tekri. Indore MP Shankar Lalwani had demanded renaming Khajrana in Indore as Ganesh Nagar. State Culture Minister Usha Thakur had also supported the demands of renaming places.
The Congress has, however, attacked the chief minister, claiming that such moves are intended to divert attention of people from the failures of the government on key issues. General secretary of MP Congress media cell, K.K. Mishra, while talking to THE WEEK, said the CM should have given account of the corruption worth crores in the ‘Namami Narmade Yatra’ and the tree plantation drive on the banks of River Narmada, conducted during his earlier tenure instead of announcing a name change. “Also, he should answer the allegations of rampant sand mining in Narmada bedmade by his own cabinet colleague (agriculture minister) Kamal Patel,” Mishra said.
