The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is currently in a fix over
renaming the Allahabad Airport. And the Ajit Singh-headed ministry will
have to choose between two monikers -- legendary freedom fighter and three-time
Congress president Madan Mohan Malviya and Motilal Nehru, the grand patriarch
of the country’s first family.
The proposals were put forward by the respective National Implementation
Committees (NIC) set up by the UPA Government to celebrate the 150th
birth anniversary of the two leaders. Interestingly, both the committees are
headed by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Karan Singh.
Actually, the MoCA was caught in bind after the Union Culture Ministry,
through a letter, recently requested it to rename the airport after Motilal,
citing the recommendation of the NIC. However, the Civil Aviation secretary
wrote back pointing out that MoCA had received a proposal from “similar
sources”, to rename the Allahabad Airport after Malviya. It is learnt
that Ajit, who hails from UP, is not keen on either of the two names, although
he had managed to get the Lucknow Airport renamed after his father and former
Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh during the UPA-I’s Indo-US civilian
nuclear deal in 2008, in exchange for his party’s Parliamentary support. The
Lucknow Airport had been recently upgraded to an international airport after
Ajit took charge of the ministry.
In its reply to the Culture Ministry, MoCA has tried to wriggle out of
the situation by saying that it needs to go for “wider consultations”, before
renaming the Allahabad airport. It had also said that the Union Cabinet will
take a final call on the subject only after it received an approval from the
respective state Assemblies. It is, however, learnt that the odds are in favour
of renaming the airport after the Nehru-Gandhi family patriarch, since the
ruling party is keen on it and Ajit may have to return the favour.
“The Nehru-Gandhi family patriarch is more important to the incumbent government
any day. Our proposal to rename the Allahabad Airport after Malviya has been
sidelined as there is a huge push for naming it after Motilal Nehru,” said a
member of the NIC set up in connection with Malviya’s birth anniversary.
According to another source, the Congress Government always
adopted a step-motherly attitude towards Malviya as it had viewed him was a
‘rightist.’ “The Congress got over the misapprehension and decided to celebrate
Malviya’s birth anniversary only when it felt that his name could be used
during the last UP Assembly elections,” the source said.
On the other hand, the UPA Government had gone out of its way to
celebrate Motilal’s birth anniversary. The then Culture Minister Kumari
Selja had decided to go ahead despite the fact that the anniversary was already
over. And a high-power committee headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
oversaw the celebrations. “When it is a tie between the ruling family
patriarch and someone with no family tag, the outcome can well be expected,”
said the source.
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