Mumbai: Justified or not, it is notable how in the last couple of months, the railways department has received demands to change names of nine railway stations in the city.
These demands, mostly made by political parties in the guise of helping the city shed its colonial past and honouring the heroes of independent India, are often mired with political controversies.
The railways on their part have maintained that they do not have a say in changing the names of railway stations and that they only execute the orders of the state governments.
One of the most controversial recent name changes took place in December 2016 when a new station that was supposed to be named Oshiwara was christened Ram Mandir once the station became operational.
A collective of representatives and leaders of BJP and Shiv Sena have suggested almost all the instances of such demands in the city.
The recent success achieved by them has resulted in the renaming of the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and the Elphinstone Road railway station to Prabhadevi.
However, it should be noted that the name change of these two stations has been in talks for years.
Arvind Sawant, one of the public representatives who met the union minister Suresh Prabhu in Delhi in this regard firmly believes that it is time for the city to get rid of its colonial hangover. And, renaming stations seems to be a good start.
