Ahmedabad to be renamed as Karnavati!

November7: Well, the country seems to be passing through a spell of renaming. Had he been alive, Shakespeare would have never pronounced “what’s in a name?’ We are passing through a phase wherein places named after any Mughal or European are being reversed by the present political dispensation.

Recently, we saw several such attempts of renaming place names in the state of Uttar Pradesh. MughalSarai Junction has been renamed as Pt. Deen dayal Upadhay Junction. Three weeks after the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Tuesday announced that Faizabad district will now be known as Ayodhya. He also announced a medical college that would be named after Lord Ram’s father in the epic Ramayana, Raja Dashrath. An airport in Ayodhya will be named after Lord Ram. On Tuesday, Ekana Stadium at Lucknow was renamed as “Bharat Ratan Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium” by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

After Uttar Pradesh, it is now the turn of Gujarat. The Gujarat government on Tuesday said it was keen on renaming Ahmedabad as Karnavati, if there were no legal hurdles. Speaking to reporters in Gandhinagar, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was willing to change Ahmedabad’s name if it gets past the legal hurdles and receives required support.

Historically, the area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as Ashaval. Chaulukya ruler Karna of Anhilwara (modern Patan) had waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval and established a city called Karnavati on the banks of the Sabarmati river. Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 A.D. had laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after the four saints in the area by the name Ahmed.

Meanwhile State Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said the promise to rename Ahmedabad was just another “poll gimmick” by the ruling party. He said “For the BJP, issues like construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and renaming Ahmedabad as Karnavati are the means to get votes of Hindus.”