The Game of The Name

It's official now. In a widely reported 'confidential' note, Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrashekhar has mandated against indiscriminate use of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi’s names for government initiatives to "prevent proliferation of such association". The directive has not come a moment too soon. By one count, over 450 schemes have been blessed with these prefixes since 1991 alone, a fact that drew frequent critique from Opposition benches. It was also the subject of a petition to the Election Commission last year, suggesting the practice was in violation of the Model Code of Conduct. That the Government has finally chosen "to be sparing and selective" is, therefore, at best a case of better late than never.

Apart from displaying a singular lack of imagination, this publicity overkill was farcically counterproductive. It is one thing to name the most prominent road in every town in the country after the venerable Mahatma, once anointed as Father of the Nation, and another to affix Nehru-Indira-Rajiv (not in that order) to every government program impinging on all walks of life. As the journalist fathering the EC petition pointed out, from child-bearing, rearing, education, employment and marriage — schemes across the citizenry's entire life-cycle were blessed! Of course, the patronage extended to national challenges too: food, drinking water, shelter, electricity, destitution, handicap — you name it and ye had it, pardon the pun. State governments and central ministries seemed to fall over one another to appropriate these prize prefixes, hoping to curry favour with Congress's First Family. It is only natural that some of these schemes exist only in name: National Water Mission, Fellowship Scheme, Gramin LPG Vitrak Yojana, Creche Scheme, Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (all Rajiv); Old Age Pension, Matritva Sahyog Yojana (ditto Indira), to name but a few.

Faced with this assault of the ubiquitous, the aam aadmi, purported mascot of our ruling dispensation, could only respond with characteristic nonchalance. Unfortunately, this resignation meant even actions bordering on the absurd went unprotested. For instance, the powers-that-be were obviously unimpressed with the globally recognised Brand IIM. What else explains the desire to add 'Rajiv Gandhi' to the moniker for the Indian Institute of Management's fledgling Shillong edition? At least the hue and cry over the MoST use of Sonia Gandhi’s visage on NH signboards had the good lady herself ask its able minister to desist. (In any case, in the Congress scheme of things, few would have dared suggest removal, for fear of inviting questions on 'loyalty' that all party men wear on their sleeves.)

Perhaps one could explain schemes of a developmental nature needing such heavy-handed government guidance. However, even spheres like sports went rarely untouched. Tournaments of note carrying Gandhi-Nehru nomenclature ranged from cricket and football, through beachball and kabaddi, down to the Kerala Boat Race! In a nation short on sporting achievement (an odd CWG notwithstanding) this was surely a frittered opportunity to set examples from within the pantheon. Against this backdrop, is the apparent concern over potential "devaluation of the national leaders" anything but eminently laughable official-speak?

Think larger picture, and this name-rename obsession remains a quaint Indian construct. Having once had 'San 1942 August Kranti Marg' as my mailing address (read it aloud if you don't find it funny; it went by Hardinge Road in popular parlance), my acquaintance with this wasteful pastime is old (we moved to MacDonnell Road a.k.a Madhav Shrihari Aney Marg next!). In fact, contemporary India has been the stage for many puerile efforts over the years. Witness agitations to cleanse Bombay, Madras and Calcutta of their colonial past (more Ban-galores are in store for sure!); a facelift for Odisha and Uttarakhand; or name surgery for thousands of roads, lanes, and bylanes, and it is easy to understand why the Great Unwashed rarely care. Almost without exception, these cosmetic changes are shrugged off with the indulgent disdain Indians typically reserve for the political ilk and their shenanigans. At any rate, even if some such interventions have been accepted, they have done little to enhance the respective denizen's self-worth or quality of life.

It is, therefore, incumbent on us to actively protest such name games beyond the issue of wastefully "associating names of national leaders". As a nation with superpower ambitions, taxpayer money and political interest are better served in actual pursuit of schemes like NREGA (pronounced Na-Re-Ga in the heartland) than its rechristening four years post-launch, apparently in tribute to his dedication to Gram Swaraj, after Mahatma Gandhi. Else we will end up with MREGA.