The name of the game
Schoolchildren know the misery of being named with the last few letters of the alphabet; you always get called out last everywhere. But states can suffer from that too.
The politicians in Kolkata are convinced their state does not get its fair share of Planning Commission funds and attention in conferences because it is called West Bengal and, therefore, is way down the list. What better way to zoom towards progress than rename yourself Paschimbanga, thus pushing your way up a few places, ahead of Puducherry and Punjab to say nothing of Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh. It still doesn’t have the same precedence as Bangla, the other possible moniker, but an all-party meeting was unanimous — unprecedented in the state, whatever its name — and plumped for PB. The aam janata, bhadralok or otherwise as well as the millions of intellectuals in the state remain underwhelmed.
Changing names is nothing new in India and many of the old ones, vestiges of the colonial past, have fallen to nativist populism. Bombay became Mumbai, Madras turned to Chennai and Narendra Modi is itching to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati. There are fond dreamers who want to turn the capital into Indraprastha. But does it really help? We wouldn’t bet on it. Mamatadi may hope that investors will rush to PB to set up large factories, but, for the moment, the only people who will make money will be paint companies and letterhead printers who will be required to effect the change. All eyes are now on the Planning Commission to chip in with some cash.
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