The two MPs wrote to the BBMP commissioner about the names of the streets within the Padranyanapura district.
BJP MPs Ananth Kumar Hegde and Tejasvi Surya wrote to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner Manjanath Prasad on Thursday opposing the naming of roads with Muslim names in a Muslim-majority neighborhood (Padarayanapura) in the city . In two separate letters, the two leaders known for their hard-line Hindutva approach opined that naming streets with only Muslim names will set a dangerous precedent and be in line with the two-nation theory espoused by the Muslim League. Both leaders have stirred controversy several times in the past for making non-parliamentary and sensitive comments to the community.
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These letters were written in the context of a December 16 notice that was approved by the BBMP Revenue Department. “The christening of roads in a Muslim-dominated town with only Muslim names smacks of the same communal mentality of the two-nation theory and the Muslim League’s demand for separate constituencies for Hindus and Muslims. This is dangerous and must be condemned, ”said the letter from Tejasvi Surya, the deputy from Bangalore South. He added: “There is no shortage of patriots and non-Muslim public figures to name our roads.”
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He asked the Commissioner to review the list and finalize the list of roads that will be named after personalities only after extensive public discussion. Incidentally, the decision was approved by the BBMP Council led by former BJP Mayor Goutham Kumar.
Similarly, Hegde, the veteran Uttara Kannada MP in his letter to the BBMP Commissioner said that the roads would be named after the martyrs. “Only names of Muslim leaders in this particular neighborhood have been recommended. It is not appropriate to take that step in the name of social work, which is nothing more than the promotion of a particular community, ”he wrote.
Padarayanapura, within the Chamrajpet Assembly constituency, has been in the news since it became the city’s first district to be sealed under COVID-19 containment measures taken by the BBMP in April. An uproar had also broken out in the area after some residents, secondary contacts of COVID-19 patients, refused to go to institutional quarantine as requested by the BBMP. In that incident, around 100 people gathered and destroyed some camps, installed the authorities, threw chairs and destroyed closed-circuit television cameras and barricades.
TNM had reported how the residents of the ward were ill-treated on suspicion of being assistants to Tablighi Jamaat.
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