Agra to be renamed as Agrawal or Agravan!

November 10: Change is of course the law of nature. But the change of names of places by the saffron brigade seems to gain momentum. Many names, such, as, Mughalsarai, Faizabad, Allahabad have already been changed. Many more, such as, Ahmedabad, Shimla and the like are on the cards. ‘Agra’ appears to be the latest addition in this list.

While the demand to rename Ahmedabad is old, the petition to rename the city of Taj is new. BJP NLA from Uttar Pradesh Jagan Prasad Garg has demanded that Agra be renamed as “Agravan” or “Agrawal”. “Agra has no meaning. You check the name Agra anywhere, what relevance does it have? Earlier there used to be a lot of forests here. And people from the Agarwal community used to live here. So the name should be Agra-van or Agra-wal,” said Mr Garg.

In a letter to Adityanath on Tuesday, BJP MLA from Agra North, Jagan Prasad Garg said there were many ‘van’ (forests) and Agarwals (followers of Maharaja Agrasen) in Agra, and therefore, the city’s name should be changed to ‘Agravan’. Garg’s demand is among several made by BJP and other right wing leaders to rename cities bearing connection to erstwhile Muslim rulers.

Situated about 200 km from Delhi, Agra is home to the famous Taj Mahal and a number of other Mughal-era monuments in Fathpur Sikri which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The city was the capital of the Mughal rulers in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Opposition has ridiculed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for going on a name-changing spree instead of focusing on key developmental issues.