Chandauli: Naming of the country's biggest railway station Mugalsarai on BJP ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya has stirred up a hornet's nest in the political circle of the country. Though there was no such protest against the naming of the railway station, which also holds a record of having the largest railway yard of the country, but the Congress said that it would have been better if it was named after former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who happens to be born in Mughalsarai in 1904.
The opposition political parties have protested the move of the UP government to rename the Mughalsarai station to Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya on his birth centenary celebrations in Parliament for the same. Mughalsarai, in UP's Chandauli district, which has one of the busiest railway junctions in India, is the latest irritant that has left Chief Minister Adityanath's administration with a brewing ideological unrest.
While the BJP and its rightwing allies want it to be named after one of their intellectual pillars, Deen Dayal Upadhay, the Congress claims Lal Bahadur Shastri to be the more suitable candidate. On June 6, Yogi Adityanath cabinet approved the new name for the Mughalsarai station and it was sent to the Centre and the Railway ministry for approval.
UP government hasn't cited any specific reason for its dislike of the name, except to want to change it to honour Deen Dayal Upadhay, in his centenary year.
Deen Dayal Upadhyay died under mysterious circumstances in 1968 at Mughalsarai station. " It cannot be better way than to call the place by Deen Dayal Upadhadya to ensure his lasting afterlife in public memory," said UP BJP general secretary Vijaya Bahadur Pathak here today. He further said that the Congress and the opposition were opposing it without any substances." Had the people of the country opposed on naming of thousands of projects on the Nehru- Gandhi family. Then why so objection now?, he questioned.
On the demand that Mughalsarai should be named on Lal Bahadur Shastri, the BJP leader said ," what was Congress doing during the past over 60 years. They had ignored Shastrijee and his family and now when BJP has taken the call ,they are shedding crocodile tears." However, the UP Congress leaders also have their own reasons for protesting it and demanding that Mughalsarai station to be named on the second PM of the country Lal Bahadur Shastri. "Shastrijee is more renowned secular personality than Pandit Deen Dayal and he has the first right to get Mughalsarai station on his name," claimed UP Congress spokesperson Amarnath Agarwal.
Similar views were aired by Bharitiya Rail Mazdoor Association, whose general secretary Rajendra Ram also criticised the move of the UP government. "Mughalsarai station should be named after Shastrijee, who was born in the railway permises in his grandfather house and a life size statue of Shastrijee is kept in the godown but the authorities are not willing to allow it to be installed at the station," Mr Ram said. (UNI)