By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net
With Uttar Pradesh’s politics taking a sharp turn towards saffron over the past year, the legislators and the Members of Parliament — besides the state administration — are also playing their part in intensifying the drive. Now, Ajay Kumar Singh, member of legislative assembly from Harraiya constituency of Basti, has written a letter to Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of the state, asking him to change the name of the Basti district to Vashishth Nagar.
“Basti is the corrupt and mispronounced version of the name ‘Vashishtha Nagar’, which is authentic due to its presence in ancient Vedic texts,” said Ajay Singh in his letter addressed to Yogi Adityanath.
He further wrote, “Keeping the historical, spiritual, and Vedic importance of Basti, it is necessary to change its name to Vashishtha Nagar Basti,” asking the chief minister to start the administrative process towards changing the name.
Yogi Adityanath, who held Gorakhpur upper house seat for quite a time, has been infamous in his own constituency for changing the name of various localities and giving them a ‘saffron’ touch. For instance, he changed the name of Ali Nagar to Arya Nagar, Islam Nagar to Ishwar Nagar, and Humayun Nagar to Hanuman Nagar.
“It is a true tale that Basti was named after Vashishth Muni”— ancient Hindu saint — “and that is why I asked Hon’ble CM to change the name,” Ajay Singh told TwoCircles.net over the phone.
Basti district was made in the early 19th century during British Raj. Prior to this, it was a village named after Vaishishthi — the Ashram of Vashishtha Muni where Ram and Laxman believed to have spent some time — but no records mention that it was originally named “Vashishtha Nagar”.
“There are many things which are not mentioned in the history, but we still believe in them. The whole Hindu literature is of the history books,” said Ajay Singh when asked about the historical records.
Ajay Singh stressed that sometimes things should be left for “personal satisfaction”, leaving the factual corrections out of the way. He said, “There is no place for facts when it comes to religions and Puranas. What I am trying to tell that this is a question of personal satisfaction and we should leave the objections out of it.”