The invitation extended by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for inauguration of the Yelahanka flyover sparked off a political controversy on Wednesday with the initial intimation indicating that it would be named after Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar.
As leaders of the Opposition, including two former chief ministers, took to Twitter to strongly criticise the move, the the civic body was quick to re-issue another invitation. This time, the invitation mentioned just the inauguration of the flyover without naming it. The inauguration, scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed citing COVID-19-related restrictions.
Former Chief Ministers H.D. Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah took to social media platforms to express their opposition to the move soon after the first intimation came. They demanded that the State government rescind its decision and name the flyover after a freedom fighter from Karnataka.
BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar told The Hindu that though the civic body’s council had passed a resolution naming the flyover after V.D. Savarkar, the government was yet to approve of the same.
K.A. Muneendra Kumar, BBMP’s Ruling Party Leader, claimed he was confident of the government approving the council resolution. “Everybody knows the contribution of Veer Savarkar to the Independence struggle. We are not worried about the opposition to the resolution,” he said, and added that the proposal to name the flyover was first mooted by Yelahanka Satellite Town councillor Satish M.
Incidentally, this is not the first time that BBMP is facing opposition with regard to naming and renaming. For years ago, the civic body courted controversy with regard to renaming Albert Victor Road, also known as Alur Venkat Rao Road, in Chamarajpet as Tipu Sultan Palace Road. While the earlier council renamed the road after Tipu Sultan, the resolution was revoked by the present council.
The council also recently passed a resolution to rename Jumma Masjid Road as Devara Dasimayya Road. Earlier, after much delay, the 100 feet road in Indiranagar was named after Kannada folklorist S.K. Karim Khan in 2014, even though the resolution was approved by the council way back in 2006.
