Sultanpur: Sultanpur municipal council chairperson Babita Jaiswal has claimed that the Uttar Pradesh government is preparing to rename the district of Sultanpur as Kush Bhavanpur after Hindu deity Ram’s son, Kush.
“A proposal to this effect was passed in a meeting of the council on January 6, 2018 and was sent to the government,” Jaiswal said.
This is the latest in the Bharatiya Janata Party governments’ (and the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh) spree of renaming places, especially those which have names bearing signs of Mughal rule in India.
In 2018, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet cleared a proposal to rename Allahabad “Prayagraj”. Two weeks later, Adityanath announced that Faizabad district will be known as Ayodhya. In the same year, the railway station, Mughalsarai, was renamed after RSS ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhayaya.
A memorandum to change the name of the district was handed over to chief minister Adityanath during his visit about three months ago and he had assured that it would be done soon, Jaiswal claimed.
Also Read: What’s in a (Re)Name?
Vijay Singh Raghuvanshi, media in-charge of BJP MP from Sultanpur, Maneka Gandhi, said the locals had given a letter to her, seeking the renaming of Sultanpur as Kush Bhavanpur. “She met the CM regarding the demand. The revenue board has also given a go-ahead for the same,” he claimed.
Sultanpur is adjacent to Ayodhya. It is believed to have been the capital of Dakshin Kosala during the Ramayana period.
Mythology has it that Ram ‘gave’ Dakshin Kosala to his eldest son Kush, who established a new capital city on the banks of Gomti that came to be known as Kush Bhavanpur.
“The gazetteer and religious texts also have a reference to this,” Raghuvanshi said, claiming that Alauddin Khilji named it Sultanpur.
Last year, an office-bearer of the Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP sought to change the name of Ghazipur district (in eastern Uttar Pradesh) to Gaadhipuri.
In 2018 alone, the Union government consented to the renaming of at least 25 towns and villages across India.
(With PTI inputs)