Calcutta, Sept. 2: The Bengal Assembly today passed a resolution in favour of Paschimbanga as the state’s name.
The Opposition parties, namely CPM and RSP, which had given their nod to Paschimbanga in the all-party meeting admitted to widespread criticism against the decision and asked chief minister Mamata Banerjee to do a rethink.
But the chief minister — who admitted she was unhappy with the name — held that the “unanimous decision” was sacrosanct and settled for Paschimbanga.
“Like it or not, we have to accept it. My choice was Bangla or Bangabhoomi but it wasn’t accepted. There can be many views but for a decision either there has to be unanimity or majority. We reached a consensus on Paschimbanga,” Mamata said.
“Isn’t Uttarakhand difficult to write and pronounce? People will get used to Paschimbanga,” she said.
The decision to rename the state as Paschimbanga was taken in an all-party meeting held on August 19. The name had drawn sharp protests from a wide section of people who have been settled here for long.
Subhas Naskar, the RSP MLA who was the first to pitch for Paschimbanga, did talk about people being unhappy with the name.
“Different opinions have come up ever since the name change was proposed. Some are in favour of Bangla others don’t find anything wrong with West Bengal. We have no objection to any name. Any new suggestion can be taken up,” Naskar said.
The Forward Bloc MLA Biswanath Karak suggested seeking opinion through SMS on the name. CPM’s Anisur Rahman left a “blank cheque” for the chief minister.
“Recently, I went to a college and found the students had a problem writing Paschimbanga in English. If she wants to consider any other name, we are willing to support her. We still feel Bangla would have been good,” Rahman said on the floor of the House.
From the ruling combine, government chief whip Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and Congress legislature party Mohammad Sohrab spoke in favour of Paschimbanga. The SUCI (Communist) MLA Tarun Naskar — the only voice against the name change process — walked out after being denied a chance to speak on the issue.
Mamata, however, ruled out the possibility of any change, holding the “unanimous decision” card.
“I cannot interfere in the decision. To change it, I will have to take the opinion of all the parties all over again. What is wrong with Paschimbanga? Mahabharat ashuddha haoar moto kichhu noy (This decision will not violate the epics),” she said.
The chief minister was aware of the cyber-criticism that came her government’s way on Facebook and Twitter after the decision was announced. But Mamata insisted that she had heard the views of rural Bengal also.
