Assembly approves renaming of Osmanabad, Aurangabad and Navi Mumbai airport

Resolutions to name Aurangabad as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ and Osmanabad as ‘Dharashiv’ will be sent to the Union Ministry of Home

Mumbai: As part of the competitive emotional politics being practised in Maharashtra, the state legislature on Thursday unanimously approved the renaming of Aurangabad, Osmanabad and Navi Mumbai international airport.

The approval to rename under-construction Navi Mumbai international airport as ‘Loknete Di. Ba. Patil Navi Mumbai airport’ is sought from the Union Civil Aviation Ministry (Bachchan Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

Resolutions to name Aurangabad as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ and Osmanabad as ‘Dharashiv’ will be sent to the Union Ministry of Home, while the approval to rename under-construction Navi Mumbai international airport as ‘Loknete Di. Ba. Patil Navi Mumbai airport’ is sought from the Union Civil Aviation Ministry. As per the rules laid down in 1953 and 2005, the Union government is vested with the authority to rename cities or villages.

The previous Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had decided to name the airport after the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. However, local communities, including Agaris and Kolis, demanded that it be named after the late Di. Ba (D.B) Patil instead. Patil, a former Lok Sabha MP of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) and leader of the opposition in Maharashtra, successfully led farmers to get remunerative compensation for their lands acquired for the development of the satellite city of Navi Mumbai in the 1970s and enjoys an iconic status among the Agris and Kolis.

The renaming of Aurangabad, referred after the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, to ‘Sambhajinagar’ after Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, who was brutally tortured and killed after being captured by Aurangzeb’s forces in 1689, is also an emotive issue for the Shiv Sena. In May 1988, Sena supremo, who was reinventing himself as a Hindutva mascot, had made the demand during a public meeting at Aurangabad.

During the last cabinet meeting in June, the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA regime had approved the renaming proposals, but it was revoked the next month by the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government, which replace the MVA. Shinde had then said that the move was meant to prevent any legal challenges to the decision as the MVA was in a minority when the decision was taken.

Lately, several demands and counter-demands have been put forth for cities and places to be renamed. The Sambhaji Brigade, which has pockets of support among the Maratha youth, has sought that Pune city be named after Chhatrapati Shivaji’s mother Rajamata Jijabai, while Dalit groups want the Dadar railway station in Mumbai to be named after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

While the Maharashtra assembly in 2020 had approved a resolution recommending to the Centre that the Mumbai Central station be named after philanthropist Jagannath ‘Nana’ Shankarsheth, who played a significant role in the development of Mumbai in the colonial period, the Republican Party of India (RPI-A) wants Ambedkar’s name for the station.

After the resolutions were approved, Shiv Sena leader and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray sought that the state government follow up on the assembly’s 2020 resolution recommending the Centre that the Aurangabad airport be named after Chhatrapati Sambhaji. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured that this would be done.

Politics of renaming

During the tenure of the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP government, Bombay was renamed Mumbai. The Victoria Terminus (VT) station in Mumbai and the domestic and international airport terminals were also named after warrior-king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

The Elphinstone Road railway station in Mumbai was renamed Prabhadevi (2018) and the University of Pune after Savitribai Phule (2014). In the early 1980s, Abdul Rehman Antulay--the only Muslim chief minister of Maharashtra--approved the renaming of the Kulaba district to Raigad, after the fort capital of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.