Rename your Muslim leaders first: Rajbhar to BJP

Lucknow: A disgruntled Om Prakash Rajbhar, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government and the chief of BJP ally SBSP, has mocked the saffron party over its renaming spree and suggested it to change the names of its three prominent Muslim leaders.

“The BJP says that the cities were named by Mughals. In the the BJP, there is Shahnawaz Hussain, who is the national spokesperson; Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is a Union Cabinet minister; and, in UP, there is Mohsin Raza, who is minister of state in the Yogi Adityanath government. First, the names of these three persons should be changed,” Rajbhar purportedly said in a video, which went viral on social media.

“The GT Road, which was built by a Muslim king, should be uprooted. After all, it was built by Sher Shah Suri. Why do you allow people to use that road? Similarly, the Red Fort in Delhi and Taj Mahal. Who built them?” asked Rajbhar, who heads the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had announced that Faizabad district would henceforth be known as Ayodhya. He also proposed setting up of a new airport, named after Lord Ram, and a medical college in the name of King Dasharath, father of Ram, in the district. Last month, the state Cabinet had adopted a proposal to rename the historic city of Allahabad as Prayagraj.

When contacted by PTI on Sunday, Rajbhar said: “There is no point in renaming the districts of the state. The work which was done by the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Congress, the same is being repeated by the BJP. There is nothing new in it.”  However, UP BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla said though Rajbhar was entitled to have his views as a minister, but should refrain from making such remarks.

“Faizabad and Allahabad were renamed as Ayodhya and Prayagraj respectively as per the sanctity of these places. It was only a corrective action, as centuries ago invaders with polluted mentality had changed the names of these places,” the spokesperson claimed.