Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has once again written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to hasten the process of renaming West Bengal as “Bangla” which was unanimously passed in the State Assembly three years ago and sent to the Centre for its approval.
The Chief Minister’s request came soon after Union Home Minister Nityananda Rai telling parliament that the process of renaming West Bengal or Paschimbanga had not been taken up as it needed the constitution to be amended.
The Chief Minister reportedly wrote to the Prime Minister to take into account the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Bengal and change the name of the State currently named as West Bengal or Paschimbanga into Bangla.
The BJP, however, is opposing renaming the State considering the “historical facts and the factors leading to it — which the present name signifies.”
Replying to a question from MP Ritabrata Bandopadhyay Rai had on Tuesday said that the name had not been changed because the procedure required constitutional amendment which was again done taking into consideration a number of relevant factors.
The West Bengal Assembly had passed a resolution on July 26 last year renaming the State as “Bangla” and had sent it to the Union Home Ministry for its clearance. The proposal for renaming the State had come for the first time in 2011 when it was renamed Paschimbanga by the State Assembly. However, as the proposal was turned down by the Centre, a new initiative was taken in 2016 by the Mamata Banerjee Government which preferred three names — Bengal in English, Bangla in Bengali and Bangal in Hindi only to be rejected by the Centre once again in July last year.