Playing the name game

While setting up a chain of canteens across Bengaluru to provide food at affordable prices to marginalised sections of society is laudable, naming it after former prime minister Indira Gandhi is objectionable. 

The scheme is being funded by the Congress government in Karnataka with taxpayers’ money, not contributions by the party or its workers. Naming such schemes after living or dead political leaders glorifies them and confers undue advantage on the party in power. This is the antithesis of democratic principles. 

There are already several central government projects and schemes named after members of the Nehru-Indira Gandhi family. An effort to rename the railway station of Mughalsarai in Uttar Pradesh after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) icon Deendayal Upadhyaya is at an advanced stage. Similar moves to name some proposed centrally funded universities in the BJP-ruled Assam has been objected to by ally Asom Gana Parishad. There is a need to spell out a national policy on this issue. Else, the Supreme Court should be approached for stopping such undemocratic practices.

S K Choudhury, Bengaluru

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