With the Central government approving the renaming of poll-bound Kerala as Keralam, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday questioned the decision stating that her own government’s proposal — sent eight years ago — to change West Bengal’s name to Bangla was not approved.
She claimed that the Centre approved the proposal of CPI (M)-led Kerala government due to their “connection” with the BJP while accusing them of being “anti-Bengal”. She congratulated the people of Kerala for the name change.
“When our students go for exams or interviews, they are called at the end since the name of the state begins with ‘W’, which comes at the end alphabetically. I too face the same problem. I get the chance to speak at the end as I am the Chief Minister of West Bengal,” Mamata said in a statement.
“Based on the culture of the state, we wanted to rename West Bengal as Bangla. In this regard, we have passed resolutions twice in the Legislative Assembly,” the CM said.
“After we were told that the name of the state should be the same in Hindi, Bengali and English, we passed a resolution again to rename the state as Bangla in all three languages,” said the CM, adding after that, whenever I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, I have raised this issue. “However, much to my surprise, nothing has happened. I think they are not approving it because they are anti-Bengal. They disrespect the icons and visionaries of Bengal,” she added.
“They only use the word ‘Bangla’ during polls to get electoral benefit. That is why they have not given the approval to rename the state,” Mamata said.
Asserting that she has no problem if the name of another state is changed, Mamata stated: “Let another state change its name. We are flexible. We are not against any state. We love all the states”. But why Kerala got the approval and Bengal didn’t, she asked.
Explaining the reason behind the same, she said, “Kerala has been renamed since there is an alliance growing between the BJP and the CPI(M). The alliance is not unwritten anymore after today. Why will Bengal face deprivation always? One day, you [BJP] will not be in power. We will get the name changed.” The CM said: “The names of several states are changed once such proposals are endorsed by the respective state governments. However, the same has not been the case with West Bengal.”
“I would like to congratulate the brothers and sisters of Kerala on the decision to rename the state as Keralam,” she said.
In 2018, the Trinamool-led West Bengal government had proposed to change the name of the state from West Bengal to Bangla. However, the Ministry of External Affairs had argued that the proposed name is almost identical to that of neighboring Bangladesh. The proposal remains pending before the Centre.