It's official. The Centre has given its approval to rename a railway station near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh after Jan Sangh icon and RSS ideologue Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. Top sources told THE WEEK that the Union home ministry had cleared the proposal sent by the Yogi Adityanath government to rename Farah Town station as Deendayal Upadhyaya station. The state government will now issue a notification for the same.
Farah Town station will be renamed after the RSS ideologue | Image: Google Map
The station lies close to Upadhyaya's ancestral village, Nagla Chandrabhan in Mathura where he was born in 1916.
The file seeking renaming of Farah Town station to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya station was cleared by Union minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir last week.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited this village to pay homage to the RSS ideologue to mark the first anniversary of the NDA government.
The previous Samajwadi party government in the state had put a spanner in the process when the proposal had earlier landed with the Akhilesh Yadav government. The BJP had been pushing for it months ahead of the assembly polls in the state. The party was keen to revive of the legacy of the Jan Sangh icon.
The Yogi Adityanath government was quick to seek the MHA nod soon after it came to power after the assembly elections. Meanwhile, another proposal to rename the famous Mugalsarai railway station after Deendayal Upadhyaya has also landed at the desk of the home ministry but has not been cleared yet.
The move to rename a station after Upadhyaya coincides with the ambitious plan of the Union culture ministry which is rolling out its biggest project of "cultural mapping" at the birthplace of the the RSS ideologue to celebrate his 100th birth anniversary.
First victory stamp of Yogi government
Mathura had become the centre of politics ahead of the assembly polls in the country's most populous state. The renaming of the station is the first victory stamp of the BJP-led state government. For the saffron party, the renaming would mean the revival of the legacy of Upadhyaya.
As per the government guidelines, renaming of railway stations, towns and cities is done by the Union home ministry which gives a no-objection certificate to the proposal received from the state government. The NOC is given after the ministry receives comments of postal department, Survey of India and other agencies.
Farah Town railway station derives its name from a small town near Mathura which traces its origin back to the Mughal era and finds mention in the 1857 uprising. However, history has paved way for nationalism for now.
