Lucknow: Mehbooba Mufti, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, came down heavily on the place renaming spree of BJP.
The PDP president tweeted that the move was a way of telling Muslims, “ they don’t belong here”.
She went on to say that it was an “attempt to demolish the Idea of India we grew up with”.
Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar also joined the chorus of critics when he said it was only a drama to distract the backward and oppressed voices from demanding their rights.
BJP should change names of its Muslim leaders including Mohsin Raza, Shahnawaz Hussain and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, before renaming cities with Mughal legacy, he suggested.
He reminded BJP of the contribution of Muslims to India asking, “Shall we discard the Grand Trunk Road? Who built the Red Fort? And Taj Mahal”
According ot Historian S. Irfan Habid the demand to change the name Muzaffarnagar to Laxminagar was “blatantly communal”.