NAMING CEREMONY

Naming public buildings or facilities like airport, railway station and so on has become a nuisance now because of the narrow-minded and selfish attitudes of various politicians and other interest groups in India. Those political parties, which are enjoying political power now, are more focused on naming and renaming different entities and institutions according to their preferences and political priorities. This dirty trend of naming by political parties in various parts of India shows the failure of democracy in India. In a democracy, people must be accorded the highest priority before taking any decision but they are being considered and valued as voters only now. Thereafter they are just worthless entities. Governments do everything according to their interests, without minding citizens. I hate those struggling to extend their artificial fame through these naming gimmicks and tactics.

Politicians lose common sense and minimum sense of ethics while naming different bodies of the nation. For example, there are many demands by worthless idiots in Andhra Pradesh to name some districts after some noted figures in their respected regions. I give you three examples to let you know the worthlessness of this trend.

1. Cuddapah (Kadapa) is a district in Rayalaseema region in Andhra Pradesh now. They made it YSR district now. Since Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is supposed to be considered the God of this district, they named it so.

2. Potti Sriramulu fought for the creation of a separate Andhra state from Madras Presidency in around 1952. After his death, division of states was started on linguistic basis. This gentleman was born in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. So, they changed it to Potti Sriramulu Nellore district to respect this gentleman.

3. Currently some interest groups are demanding the name of Visakhapatnam district to be changed to Alluri Sita Rama Raju district because this local revolutionary freedom fighter spent much of his active life in this district. I strongly object to this proposal. Visakha is historically and beautifully more worthy than the long name of this gentleman.

There are many instances in this country to show how different public facilities are being named and renamed. I am disturbed observing these crazy and senseless efforts by politicians and interest groups. I strongly believe that we have no moral authority to change the name of a region or facility into that of the name of a noted personality in that locality. I have the following viewpoints in this regard.

1. There are many great people in almost every part of India, not just one or two persons. This is applicable to all ages, not just our modern age. Then, how can we choose the name of just one person to name or rename an entity. Is it not insulting all other extraordinary personalities of an age or region doing so? For example, many saints and achievers also were born in Kadapa district. Y S Raja Sekhara Reddy cannot be compared to any of those achievers of highest order. He is just a politician, who did everything an ordinary politician is supposed to do. He did not do anything to bring a historical change in the lives of humanity. Just because the folks of YSR have the maximum political and financial influence on this region, during the last few years, they changed the name of this district in that fashion. Is it meaningful and worthwhile when perceived from a broader perspective of idealists and patriots? The same is the case with Potti Sriramulu also. He fought for a cause. There are many other achievers also in this district. Then why the name of this gentleman only? Is it not stupidity, nonsense, mania and filth of those idiots that named this district so? What moral authority do they have to change the name of a district according to their fancies?

2. The name of a place or institution must be easy to remember and convenient to pronounce. We are forgetting this basic principle while changing the names of many bodies now.

3. There is no use in promoting the fame of dead persons because their departed souls do not enjoy this phenomenon. We should learn to recognize and appreciate those who are alive, those who achieved extraordinary things in their lifetimes, that too when they are living among us somewhere. It would be a real tribute to them. How many governments are doing it? We always respect one, only if he or she dies for a cause but not if he or she is living among us now, fighting for a cause. It means we are more after dead persons than those living with us now. It’s a kind of devilish mentality, which we need to shun. To develop a nation, we must respect those living now more than those that died. If there are extraordinary persons in our history, let’s read about them in our books and see them in our creative works like dramas and feature films but not as statues and names of institutions. A living soul can enjoy fame through a body it wears but a departed soul detaches itself from all its attachments with this material world.

4. This country or any region in it does not belong to any political party or interest groups. The base of political parties and interest groups are selfishness, nepotism, narrow-mindedness and lack of impartiality. It means they are immoral bodies from many perspectives. Then, how can they name or rename various places and entities according to their interests? For that matter, I don’t like even Mahatma Gandhi being promoted extensively in different ways by the Government of India or other bodies of various ideologies. Gandhi was just one gentleman. He sacrificed his life for the cause of the nation. He was just one achiever of those times. Why are we not promoting other supreme leaders also in the same fashion? Did Mahatma Gandhi ever ask others to promote him? Are there no other great individuals who substantially contributed to the development and peace of India over the years?

5. This nation does not belong to any political party but the people living in it. The existence of various political parties in a nation leads to anarchy and menace in the long run because each party professes a lot to promote itself as a unique and different party from the rest. This situation is prevalent in India now. Regional parties wish to change names to promote their local leaders. National parties struggle to promote their leaders at various levels. Is this not shameless fight and effort of various dirty political parties to promote their fame in the most indecent way? What is the contribution of Indira or Rajiv Gandhi to the substantial development of India? They had been merely hard-core politicians. They acquired political power exploiting the opportunities of those times. They enjoyed that status as politicians and authoritative rulers of India. They did not sacrifice anything for this nation. Then why should the rogues and nuts of the Congress Party promote them so shamelessly and illogically? Why should they allot a vast stretch of land for their funerals and graveyards in Delhi? When millions of people are suffering from poverty, disease and disorder in this nation, should we promote a handful of nasty politicians only in this dirty manner in India? Those, who do not have worth of their own, really struggle a lot for false prestige. It is the fame, which we don’t deserve at all. Almost every political party is struggling for such immoral and illegal fame now in this nation. A true leader never craves false prestige. It means we have such politicians in India now, who are promoting their worthless leaders somehow!

I believe that we can name or rename something following some of the guidelines given below.

1. When a name has the shades of foreign rule, which we got rid of years ago. For example Madras becoming Chennai; Bangalore becoming Bengaluru; Calcutta becoming Kolkata; Bombay becoming Mumbai; Orissa becoming Odisha. They changed these names to represent their native culture and tradition but not a person. It is an ideal pursuit. It is like honoring the collective force and beauty of a region in its native fashion neutrally.

2. We should keep the process of giving names of persons to places and other entities to the least because persons are temporal and mortal but standards and values of a race or community may be everlasting and memorable. We should value virtues more than those possessing those virtues.  Vice must be discouraged and reformed always; in naming entities in particular.

3.  Beauty is always a favourite idea and phenomenon for humanity in all ages. So, if a name is sounding ugly, we can make it beautiful. Ugly words can be replaced with beautiful ones. This must be our first choice while trying to change the name of a public place or facility. Thus we can make India beautiful, verbally at least.

4. We can give the name of a native achiever to a place only if we believe that such person does not appear in that region for another 1000 years or so to come. One must have such highest standards of achievement to deserve such treatment. Even then, we should not prefer dead souls to living ones in this context. The living must be honoured as far as possible everywhere.

5. This universe belongs to God. So, apply His names to as many places as possible to respect your respective religions. Your passion for your religion or community should not encourage you to hate the rest. You must love all and desire to be loved by all. Idealism is more valuable than a religion or community. You should name different places and entities to honour idealism and idealists but not selfish achievers that live for a short while only.