West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday condemned what she called the BJP-led Centre’s political double standards and its “anti-Bengali" stance, soon after the Union cabinet’s approval of Kerala’s renaming to‘Keralam’.

Banerjee said the long-pending name change proposal for West Bengal to ‘Bangla’ remains stalled and the state continues to suffer from an alphabetical disadvantage, which causes professional hurdles for its people. By renaming the state, it will jump from the bottom of the list to the fourth position, following Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam.

While congratulating the “brothers and sisters of Kerala" for their success, Banerjee once again drew attention to therenaming of West Bengal.

“I would like to congratulate the brothers and sisters of Kerala on the decision to rename the state as ‘Keralam’. The names of several states are changed once such proposals are endorsed by the respective state governments. However, the same has not been the case with West Bengal," Banerjee said.

She added: “When our students go for exams or interviews, they are called at the end since the name of the state begins with ‘W’, which is towards the end of the alphabet. I, too, face the same problem and my chance to speak always comes at the end as I am the chief minister of West Bengal."

Banerjee said the push to rename the state is deeply rooted in a desire to better reflect Bengal’s cultural identity and move past the historical legacy of the 1947 Partition.

“Based on the culture of the state, we wanted to rename West Bengal as Bangla. In this regard, we have passed resolutions twice in the legislative assembly. After we were told that the name of the state should be the same in Hindi, Bengali and English, we passed a resolution again to rename the state as Bangla in all three languages," she said.

Experts have argued that the prefix “West" is an obsolete reminder of a painful era, particularly as “East Bengal" no longer exists, having become East Pakistan and subsequently the independent nation of Bangladesh.

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Banerjee took a swipe at the BJP, accusing the party of being “anti-Bengali". She alleged that despite raising the issue repeatedly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, no action has been taken.

Source: Politics News in news18.com, Politics Latest News, Politics News