There seems to be a jinx of sorts on places and institutions named after dalit icon Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj in Uttar Pradesh.
Barely a month after the exit of the Mayawati government in UP, a demand has started growing for reverting the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar (CSM Nagar) to its original name Amethi and also the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical university to its original King George’s Medical University.
A delegation of SP MLAs, led by Gayatri Prasad Prajapati (Amethi), Rakesh Singh (Gauriganj) and Asha Kishore (Salon) recently met chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and asked him to revert the name of the district to its original Amethi. The chief minister, according to the MLAs, has agreed in principle to change the name of the district to Amethi.
“Amethi has an emotional and historical significance for the people whereas Chhatrapati Shahuji has absolutely no connection with the region. Changing the name to CSM Nagar was a whimsical decision by Ms Mayawati and we will get it reverted back to Amethi as soon as possible,” said Gayatri Prasad Prajapati.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that this VIP constituency dangles between Amethi and Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar. Ms Mayawati, in 2002, had named Amethi as Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar but her decision was scrapped in 2003 by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav who succeeded her. The matter went to court and Ms Mayawati renamed the district as Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar again in April 2010.
Earlier in 1997, Ms Mayawati had tried to rename Chitrakoot, then a newly created district, as Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar but had to rescind her decision after intense protests from her coalition partner, the BJP, which was keen to preserve the religious and mythological sanctity of Chitrakoot.
The story of renaming the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) after Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar also moves on similar lines.Ms Mayawati, as chief minister in 2002, decided to rename the KGMU as Chhhtrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU).
The teachers and the alumni — who took pride in calling themselves “Georgians” across the globe — strongly protested the renaming of the institution but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
In December 2003, when Mr Mulayam Singh was chief minister, he accepted the request of alumni and teachers and restored the original name of the institution. The huge statue of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj installed on the gate of the university, however, was left untouched.
However, in 2007, with the return of Mayawati as chief minister, the institution’s name was again changed to Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University.
“The institution is known worldwide as King George’s Medical University and its student are referred to as Georgians. With the change of names, should we now refer ourselves to as Shahujians? We want the institutions to get back its original name so that our identity also remains intact,” says Dr S.K. Rathore, a neuro-surgeon now based in Germany.
BSP leaders, now grudgingly concede that there is a jinx on the name of the dalit icon and his name lacks permanence.