The Name game: Belgaum & Belagavi

Union minister Pranab Mukherjee, while presenting the interim budget, chose to call the city `Bengaluru’, thus giving it official sanctity.

It has been over three years now that the UPA government is sitting on the files of the renaming 13 cities in Karnataka.

In addition, all is stuck because of our town, Belgaum. The hitch lies in renaming `Belgaum’ as `Belagavi’. The Centre has not agreed to this as Belgaum is caught between Karnataka and Maharashtra in the border dispute. One of the Centre’s guidelines for renaming places is that the names should not hurt people’s sentiments, have political overtones or be already in use in some other state. Karnataka is unwilling to drop Belgaum and go ahead with re-naming the other 12 cities.

See the importance of Belgaum, because of which renaming of 12 other cities is officially hampered. Bagalore is now called Bengaluru in almost all places but officially its still not renamed.

Why renaming at all? Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai, Calcutta became Kolkotta so why should we remain behind. However, what is the logic behind renaming is a mystery to me. What difference does it make I call it Belgaum and you call it Belagavi or even Belgaon, all will stay in the same city drink the same water and breathe the same air, so what is the utility of renaming?

Source: TOI