West Bengal Assembly passes bill to rename state

The West Bengal Assembly on Monday in a special session passed a resolution to renaming the state as “Bangla” in Bengali and “Bengal” in English. The Congress, however, walked out in protest. “They are making a historic blunder. Hist-ory will not forgive those who are opposing this. This is a historic day and will be remembered in golden letters,” CM Ma-mata Banerjee later said.

The chief minister spoke with Union home minister Rajnath Singh immediately after the resolution was passed and urged him to do the needful so that the proposal gets the green signal at the next Parliament session.

The proposal of rechristening West Bengal was voted on the floor of Assembly and it was approved with a majority of 189 to 31. Optimistic of getting the nod from the Centre in quick time, Ms Banerjee said, “Bombay has become Mumbai, Madras has been renamed Chennai, Kerala too has got a new name. The name Bangla is deeply associated with our culture and tradition and we want to take everyone along with us. There should be a brand of Bengal,” she added.

Ms Banerjee said that a logo for Bengal would be developed and in line with Joy Bangla, the people of Bengal would say “Joyo Bangla.”

She also made it clear that she personally has no objection to the name Banga but added that this word is more used in poetry. “When a person is asked in another state or a country where does he/ she hails from, the prompt answer that comes from him is Bangla. The people of other states or countries know us by the name Bengal. So Bangla in Ben-gali and Bengal in Engli-sh is welcome,” she asserted.

Elaborating on her standpoint, the chief minister said that the new name will provide the opportunity for the state to speak earlier in national meetings. “In Delhi, I recently got the chance to speak even after the deputy chief minister of Punjab. West Bengal came at the end of an alphabetical list,” she added.

Taking a strong exception to the Opposition parties who did not support the resolution, Ms Banerjee said, “The Congress has turned into a frontal organisation of the CPM by opposing everything. They play ‘narad narad’ by seeing any issue. “

Ms Banerjee also ridiculed the claim of state BJP president Dilip Ghosh that they would ask the Union government not to allow the change. “They think they control the Central government. There is a relation between the Centre and the states in a federal structure and we don’t need middlemen,” she said.

In 2001, the previous Left government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had cleared the renaming of the state to “Paschimbanga.” The Trinamul Congress also supported the move. The Central government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee didn’t accept the suggestion.

“You are not supporting our move as you had failed in 2001. Grapes are sour,” she remarked.