The West Bengal Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday to change the state’s name to Bangla.
However, the change will require the approval of the Union home ministry to come into effect. The move follows months of back-and-forth between the state and the Centre over the proposal.
It will be “Bangla” in all languages, according to a leader of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress. On this at least, the ruling party concurs with its rival Left, which had suggested the name in 1999. Two years ago, a similar move had been stalled after the Mamata Banerjee government cleared a new name with three versions — Bangla in Bengali, Bangaal in Hindi and Bengal in English. The center suggested one uniform name.
READ ALSO: OMG! Pakistan Daily Correspondent Wants Pinarayi Vijayan as India’s Education Minister
Today’s development can be seen as a bid to raise its stature in the alphabetical sequence of state names. Today’s decision is the culmination of efforts since 2011 when Mamata Banerjee took the office of chief minister of the state and discovered an annoying truth. Name of West Bengal always appeared at the bottom of the list whenever state representatives or event Mamata herself was supposed to address any meeting between the Union government and the states.
The resolution passed by the West Bengal Assembly will now go to the Union Home Ministry and if the Ministry of Home Affairs gives a green signal then only the name of the state will be changed to ‘Bangla’.
Post Your Comments