KOLKATA: Kolkata will no longer have roads named after Mughals, Pathans or oppressive British rulers, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Tuesday, as he defended the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s decision to rename Suhrawardy Road as Gopal Mukherjee Road.
Speaking in the Assembly during discussion of the Governor’s address, Adhikari supported the June 20 decision to rename the main road in the Park Circus area after Gopal Mukherjee, who took up arms to protect Hindus during the 1946 communal riots, historically known as the Great Calcutta Killings.
“I don’t know who took the decision but I fully support it. Bengal cannot have a road named Suhrawardy,” Adhikari said.
His statements came amid controversy in the state assembly over the historical reference behind the road’s original name.
Since the renaming, several academics and Trinamool Congress leaders have argued that the road was named after Sir Hassan Suhrawardy, an academic, art critic and the first Muslim vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, and not after Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, the last prime minister of undivided Bengal who has long been accused by critics of having links to the Great Calcutta Massacre of 1946.
Opposition leader Ritabrata Banerjee raised questions over the renaming of Suhrawardy Street and said that history is being distorted. Some people even claimed that the road was not named after Sir Hassan Suhrawardy but after his father Ubaidullah Al-Ubaidi Suhrawardy, a Muslim scholar. Ritabrata mentioned this in his address to the Assembly.
“Whenever I pass through the Park Circus seven-point crossing, I see Suhrawardy’s name written on the road. That name cannot be there. If you feel that someone like Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, a true patriot and nationalist, needs to be honoured, give us the information, we will take it into consideration,” Adhikari said.
Referring to Banerjee’s speech, the Prime Minister said Sir Hasan Suhrawardy was honored with a knighthood after handing over freedom fighter Beena Das following her failed attempt to shoot the then Bengal Governor Sir Stanley Jackson during a Calcutta University function in 1932.
“I have claimed that the road was named after another Suhrawardy. I have also spoken to people who have gone through historical records. The Vice Chancellor was given knighthood because he handed over Bina Das to the British. There will be no oppressive Mughal, Pathan or British names in Kolkata,” Adhikari said.
He also announced that a committee headed by Padma Shri awardee Swami Pradiptananda would review proposals to rename roads and public places in the state.
Evaluation mission
