Kolkata: In a special session, West Bengal’ legislative assembly on Monday passed a resolution, renaming the state to Bengal in English and Bangla in Bengali.
What was expected to be a smooth session with an all-party consensus, turned into an ugly spat with opposition members accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and chief minister Mamata Banerjee of being dictatorial.
Congress Party legislators staged a walk out of the House during discussion, even as Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM) members wanted an amendment to the name change resolution and the Bharatiya Janata Party opposed the resolution. In the end a resolution was passed through voice vote.
Banerjee called the attitude of the Opposition a ‘historic blunder’ and said that the people of the state would not forgive them for this.
“Those who did not support us in this, the future won’t forgive them. It will remain as a blot. The Congress party has turned into a frontal organisation of the CPM by opposing everything,” Banerjee told reporters at the legislative assembly here in Kolkata.
“Just because they could not pass the resolution, they are criticising it. I don’t think they have the right to do politics in Bengal who do not support anything for the benefit of Bengal. This is very unfortunate. We are also against the policies of the centre but we cannot allow losses of crores in the name of Bandhs (strike),” she added.
Banerjee said that the centre government has already been informed that they should not consider an earlier resolution adopted by the assembly in 2011 on the issue and soon a fresh proposal will be sent to them. She said her government will urge the union government to pass the resolution through the parliament. Consent of both houses of parliament is necessary to affect the name change
In 2011, the state government had sent a proposal to the Centre for renaming West Bengal as “Paschim Bango”, but that never got the green signal.
The need for name change was realised by Banerjee two months ago when she visited Delhi for a meeting of the Inter State Coulcil and since the West Bengal comes last in alphabetical order, Banerjee could hardly speak and mercurial that she is, she immediately asked her officer to start the process of name change. “I could hardly speak after six hours of waiting when none was willing to listen,” Banerjee told her close aides.
The people of the state though have welcomed this move saying that since the state is globally known as Bengal, it is a positive change. “East Bengal has ceased to exist post the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. There was no need for us to be called West Bengal for so long,” said author Sirsendhu Mukherjee.
