PALAKKAD: A fresh debate over names is brewing in Palakkad.
Amid the row triggered by the BJP-ruled Palakkad municipal council’s decision to name an upcoming skill development centre after RSS founder K B Hedgewar, a councillor from the party has demanded immediate rechristening of ‘Jinnah Nagar’, a commercial area in the heart of the city named after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.
In an urgent notice to the municipal council on Tuesday, BJP councillor from Ayyapuram East ward Sasikumar M demanded that the area be named after Chettur Sankaran Nair, the only Keralite to have served as the All India Congress Committee president and the sole Indian member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council.
Jinnah Nagar, a once residential area and now a commercial region, lies adjacent to the bustling Valiyangadi area. It is claimed a resolution passed by the municipality in 1977 had named the locality Jinnah Nagar.
The BJP leaders argued that honouring Jinnah by naming a place in India after him is “deeply inappropriate” and that “Pakistani symbols have no place in Palakkad”.
They claimed Jinnah was responsible for the Partition, which led to widespread bloodshed and the enduring conflict between India and Pakistan. They also cited the Pahalgam terror attack as evidence of ongoing threats linked to the consequences of Partition.
“It is unacceptable that an area in an Indian city still bears the name of a man who advocated the two-nation theory and divided our country,” Sasikumar told TNIE. “It was in 1977 that the Palakkad municipality took the disgraceful step of naming a major locality after Jinnah. Congress and IUML ruled the civic body at the time. We demand the decision be reversed,” he said.
“We propose the Manjakulam road-Vandikkara street that covers Jinnah Nagar be renamed after Chettur in honour of the prominent freedom fighter, jurist and the only Malayali to head the AICC,” he said.
The proposal is expected to be taken up for discussion in the next council meeting.