Kerala BJP supports renaming state to ‘Keralam’; writes to PM, CM
Rajeev Chandrasekhar says party's ideology has been grounded in protecting linguistic culture and traditions, and that it has always seen the state as 'Keralam'
Kerala’s unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has extended its support to the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government's move to rename the state to "Keralam", and has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention for that.
Kerala BJP’s state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, making the party's stand clear in the matter.
Reasons for renaming
According to Chandrasekhar, the renaming would help curb the attempts of extremist forces that are raising demands for the division of the state into separate districts on the basis of religion, says a PTI report.
Watch: Kerala's new name: Why 'Keralam' matters to its people - Explained
He stated that the BJP's ideology has been grounded in protecting and respecting linguistic culture and traditions, and that the party has always seen the state as "Keralam" with the thousands of years of tradition, heritage and culture that it represents.
Letter to the PM
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Chandrasekhar expressed his support for the state Legislative Assembly’s passing of a resolution that would change the name of the state in its official records from "Kerala" to "Keralam".
He expressed hope that with the renaming of the state, all of the state’s political parties will work together to revive and preserve Kerala's rich traditional heritage, while also working to create a "Vikasita, Surakshita Keralam", where the faith and tradition of all people cutting across their religion is protected and respected.
Also read: Kerala Assembly passes resolution to rename state as Keralam
In the letter he added, "A Keralam deeply rooted in its history, whilst working for a bright, prosperous future for all Malayalees, will also serve to blunt the efforts of some radical elements in our society, who continue to raise demands for carving out more 'separate districts' based on religion to fragment our State.”
He requested the PM’s intervention to ensure that the state is named “the Malayalam-rooted name (Keralam)”, and reiterated the same stand in his letter to the chief minister.
Assembly’s decision
In August 2024, the Kerala assembly unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to officially change the state's name to 'Keralam'.
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This resolution was moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had urged the Union government to change the state's name to 'Keralam' in all languages that were included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
While presenting the resolution, Pinarayi had said the state was called 'Keralam' in Malayalam, but in other languages it was still Kerala. He also emphasised that the need to form a united Kerala for the Malayalam-speaking communities, had strongly emerged ever since the time of the national freedom struggle.
(With agency inputs)