No move to change Agra’s name: UP BJP spokesperson

AGRA: Claiming that there was no move to change the name of Agra city, BJP state spokesperson Chandramohan defended the government’s move to rechristen Allahabad as Prayagraj on the plea that city’s old name has been restored. “Its only a naam wapsi,” Chandramohan said while speaking to media in Aligarh on Sunday.

“It’s a propaganda that the BJP is changing names of cities.They have only restored the old names of the cities,” said RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya, adding that earlier governments had too changed the names of cities like Bombay, Madras and Calcutta.
Chandramohan said that though the government can consider more public requests for changing names of other cities, no name change is in the offing as of now.
Criticising historian Irfan Habib’s statement that Amit Shah should change his name as his surname is of Persian origin, Chandramohan said that this showed the petty mindedness of the former.
Elaborating on the name change of Allahabad, Chandramohan said that the age-old name of the city was Prayag which in literal translation means "a place of sacrifice".
Prayag finds its mention in the Rig Veda and is recognised as the place where Brahma (the creator of the universe in Hindu mythology) attended a ritual sacrifice. Allahabad is popularly known as Triveni Sangam or Sangam Nagari as it is in this city that the confluence of three most pious rivers, the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati occurs.
On being asked about renaming Faizabad as Ayodhya district, the spokesperson said that Ayodhya district is known worldwide and that is the reason that Faizabad will be merged with Ayodhya and known as Ayodhya district. However, name of Faizabad town will not be changed, he added.