Mamata knocks West out of Bengal

The Mamata Banerjee cabinet on Tuesday resolved to change the state's name, dropping the “West“ to call it simply “Bengal“ (in English). In Bengali, the state will be called “Banga“ or “Bangla“ instead of “Paschimbanga“. This the third attempt to change the state's name in the last 17 years -it started with the Jyoti Basu government's 1999 effort -and caps a long history of nomenclature changes of the region that happened naturally over several centuries.
But both the attempts of the last 17 years have been stillborn -more for political reasons -and politics may well play a determining role yet again, nixing the third attempt by this government. The advantages of the proposed name change are practical and obvious. The proposed name starts with “B“ instead of the current “W“ so official representatives of the state will not have to twiddle their thumb, waiting for their turn to present the state's case in all-India meetings (the latest victim has been chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself, at the recent Inter-State Council meeting).
The drawbacks of the proposed change would generate far greater debate.The “West“ in “West Bengal“ was a reaction to -and acts as a reminder of -the partition of undivided Bengal in 1905. A section of historians would not like the idea of dropping this; it would be an undesirable attempt at forgetting history .
The current effort, yet again, is likely to test a myriad of political equations. The name change bill will have a chance only if the personal chemistry between Banerjee and PM Narendra Modi works, despite her continuing barbs against the BJP's efforts to “divide the people“. Neither can the Bengal CM take the Congress's support for granted, given her party's continued takeovers of Congress-run civic boards and MLAs. And the non-Congress non-BJP regional parties do not add up to number that is required to change a state's name. And all this will come into play only after the state assembly passes a bill after an all party meeting.