SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has proposed to rename Jawahar Bagh in Mathura, which witnessed a fierce clash between squatters and police personnel a few days ago. About 29 people, including two senior police officials, were killed in the violence.
This is the first time that the BJP has sought to rename public places named after the Nehru- Gandhi family. BJP national secretary Srikant Sharma has written a letter to UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, demanding the renaming of Jawahar Bagh after SP city Mathura Mukul Dwivedi and Farah station officer Santosh Kumar Yadav, who lost their lives in the violence. According to political observers, the BJP’s move might be to please the Brahmin and Yadav communities in poll-bound UP. Dwivedi and Yadav belong to Brahmin and Yadav communities, respectively.
Though BJP has changed the names of public schemes named after the Nehru-Gandhi family, this is the first time that a demand has been made to rename a public place named after them. Two days ago, the BJP-ruled Maharashtra government renamed the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayi Arogya Yojana’ (RGJAY) as ‘Mahatma Phule Jana Arogya Yojana’ (MPJAY).