KOLKATA: The Indian central government has returned the state's proposal to rename itself as 'Bangla' suggesting instead the name 'Paschimbanga', which is favoured by the state unit of BJP. The ministry of external affairs has objected to the name citing its similarity with Bangladesh, report agencies.
The Mamata Banerjee government had proposed the renaming thrice - 2011, 2016 and 2018. The first proposal, ironically, to change the name to 'Paschimbanga' was turned down by the UPA-2 government. No reason was given for it, sources claimed. The 2016 proposal to name 'Bengal' in English, 'Bangla' in Bengali and 'Bangal' in Hindi was turned down by the NDA government.
"We haveconsistently demanded that West Bengal's name, if changed at all, should only be Paschimbanga.," state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre, accusing it of obstructing the name change of West Bengal even as it changed names of historical places "unilaterally."
In a scathing post on Facebook, the Trinamool Congress chief wrote, "The Centre is totally ignoring West Bengal even when our Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution to change the name of the state to Bangla."
West Bengal can't be Bangla, says Delhi
FE Team | Published: November 15, 2018 00:06:46
West Bengal can't be Bangla, says Delhi
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