A committee set up by West Bengal’s BJP government is mulling proposals to rename several roads, bridges and public places in the state, including three prominent Kolkata thoroughfares named after communist leaders Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh.
The CPI(M) will certainly object to a name change involving Comrade Lenin, and the TMC too will resist the move, he said, asserting: “Lenin Sarani existed and will continue to exist. Ghosh, however, stated the CPI(M) needs to learn a lesson from the current controversy and maintained that the party, in its “blind opposition” to the TMC, had at times strengthened the BJP and celebrated when central agencies like the ED and CBI acted against the Trinamool Congress.
For Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Roy proposed the name of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The 10-member panel, headed by Swami Pradiptananda, popularly known as Kartik Maharaj of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, is expected to hold its first meeting after Durga Puja, when proposals for renaming roads in Kolkata are likely to be taken up, a senior member of the advisory committee said on Monday.
Roy said he had suggested that Karl Marx Sarani in Kidderpore be renamed after Bengali poets Michael Madhusudan Dutt or Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, citing their association with the area. “All these are recommendatory to be submitted after the Pujas and for final decision by KMC,” Roy said. Asked if the Lenin statue at Esplanade crossing in the heart of the city would be removed, Roy said, “If there is a suggestion in this regard, I hope the board will think accordingly. “I have also suggested to the Metro Railway authorities that the names of certain stations in the Tollygunge-Garia stretch of the Blue Line be changed after respective places instead of names of personalities to be of help to the commuting public and residents of the area,” he said.
He also proposed renaming Lenin Sarani, earlier known as Dharmatala Street, after mathematician and former Bharatiya Jana Sangh president Debaprasad Ghosh.
