According to a report released on Friday, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh plans to rename Sultanpur to Kush Bhawanpur. Kush is the name of Lord Ram’s son.
By Vaishali Pandey/The Newster
A top official from the Board of Revenue stated that the state administration has received a proposal to this effect, which will be approved by the state cabinet.
Devmani Dwivedi, a BJP MLA from Lambhua Vidhan sabha seat of Sultanpur, addressed the matter in the Assembly in 2018.
Following that, the Sultanpur district magistrate and the Ayodhya Divisional Commissioner submitted a request to the state government and the Board of Revenue to rename the district Kush Bhawanpur, citing Sultanpur’s historic heritage in the gazetteer.
Sultanpur is also a Lok Sabha constituency of BJP MP Maneka Gandhi.
If approved, then Sultanpur will become the third district in Uttar Pradesh to be renamed by the Yogi Adityanath government, following the renaming of Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj.
Ram Naik Relates The Renaming Of Sultanpur As The Restoration Of The City’s Past Glory
In March 2019, the then-Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Naik, wrote to Yogi Adityanath, seeking the renaming of Sultanpur district to Kush Bhawanpur.
Read More: Politically Motivated, Ploy to Set False Narrative says AMUSU ex-President on Proposed Rechristening of Aligarh
Naik said in his letter that he met with a delegation. The delegation gave him a book on Sultanpur’s history and suggested that the district be renamed Kush Bhawanpur “to restore its past glory.”
BJP’s Long Politics On Renaming
In Yogi Adityanath’s administration, the renaming of Muslim-named cities in Uttar Pradesh to Hindi names and non-muslim icons has become the new normal.
In 2018, shortly after the general elections, the BJP-led state administration of Yogi Adityanath renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj, Faizabad as Ayodhya, and Mughalsarai as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay.
Recently, the Aligarh Zila Panchayat approved a resolution earlier this month proposing that Aligarh be renamed Harigarh.
Meanwhile, the Mainpuri Zila Panchayat voted to rename the town Mayan Nagar in honour of Sage Mayan, the founder of modern-day Mainpuri.
The West Uttar Pradesh Bajrang Dal has demanded that Deoband, which is home to a prominent Islamic institution, be renamed as Devvrand in a letter to UP Urban Development Minister Ashutosh Tandon.
The Firozabad District Panchayat also agreed earlier this month to rename the district Chandra Nagar in honour of King Chandra Sen, who lived in Firozabad at the time.
According to critics, all of this is being done to reinforce Uttar Pradesh’s Hindu identity and create a polarising environment ahead of the 2022 assembly elections.
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