NEW DELHI: There was outrage and condemnation of the alleged move by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi Marlena Singh to drop her last name from campaign material, social media accounts and the party’s official website, on Tuesday. “The communalisation of Indian politics is alarming. In 1977 George Fernandes won an election with a thumping majority from “parochial” Bihar. In 2019 a candidate has to change her name in “cosmopolitan” Delhi,” said eminent historian Ramchandra Guha.
Her Twitter handle has now changed from @Atishimarlena to @AtishiAAP. Her name has been amended on the AAP website. Similarly in the coming days various posters, banners would just have her first name.
Marlena who is the AAP’s candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from East Delhi has served as an advisor in the education department of Delhi.
The change has created so much traction because the party which rushed into the political arena with a plank to bring about a positive change in politics is taking positions based on the caste calculus of the area.
However, AAP leader Akshay Marathe denied that the party had asked Atishi to ditch her surname. “A progressive politician like Atishi who does not use her caste name ‘Singh’ to ask for votes, is being targeted for using only Atishi without ‘Marlena’. Our discourse is around education and healthcare, not on identities of caste and religion,” Marathe tweeted.