People on social media have slammed, condemned and mocked at such attempts. “Hindu khatre mein hai!!! But how does changing the name of a place eliminate the khatra?,” posted an X user Ravi Dasgupta.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Members of the women’s wing of Hindu Raksha Dal, an outfit advocating Hindutva ideology, on Monday defaced signboards of Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad city demanding to rename the district after a Dudeshwar temple.
A video of the incident has surfaced on social media which shows some women defacing a Ghaziabad signboard by pasting the poster of Dudheswar Nagar on it. After defacing a signboard, the women chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram,’ a Hindutva slogan.
In the video, the women stated that they were putting posters of Dudheshwar Nagar on signboards after failing to get a positive response to their memorandum submitted in this connection to officials of the local administration. Now, the women claim, they will paste Dudheshwar Nagar posters on all Ghaziabad signboards.
According to media reports, the vigilantes had defaced a dozen of the signboards with black paint. Pinki Chaudhary, chief of Hindu Raksha Dal, who was booked under various sections of the UP Control of Goondas Act in October for harassing a traffic official, acknowledged that members of his outfit were involved in the defacing of the signboards.
He claimed that when someone thinks or hears of Ghaziabad, an impression of Mughal dynasts comes to mind. That’s why he wants to it to be renamed after Dhudeshwar temple.
People on social media slammed, condemned and mocked at such attempts.Show original message
Another X user Rapunzel tagged Ghaziabad Police asking as to who gave them (Hindu Raksha Dal members) the authority to vandalise public property.
“Are you going to take action against them for vandalising taxpayers’ property,” he asked.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP}governments have embarked on a campaign of changing names of cities, towns, railway stations and others having a Muslim identity. The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has executed several such moves. Allahabad, Faizabad, Mughalsarai station are some of the significant places which have been renamed. There are also plans to rename several other places including the historic city of Aligarh. A proposal has already been approved to change its name to Harigarh.
Such moves have often come under fire with people pointing out that it was being done to wipe out the identity of Muslims.
