Ahmedabad, Nov 15 (Zee News): Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel has hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government over the name changing spree of cities. Mocking the decision of Yogi-Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government to change names of Allahabad and Faizabad, the Patel community leader said that if changing names can solve issues, all Indians must be named Ram.

Speaking to mediapersons, Hardik said, “Agar iss desh mein sirf shehron ke naam badlne se desh ko sone ki chidiya bana sakte toh main maanta hun ki 125 crore Hindustaniyon ka naam Ram rakh dena chahiye (If changing the names of cities can make this country rich, then all 125 crore Indians must be named Ram).”

“Iss desh mein berozgari, kisanon ka prashan bada hai aur yeh naam aur murtiyon ke chakkar mein hain (the issues of unemployment and farmers are big in this country, but they are only interested in names and idols),” Patel further said.

This comes just days after Yogi Adityanath, at Deepotsav 2018 event in Ayodhya, declared that the district of Faizabad would be renamed after the holy town in Uttar Pradesh. Faizabad’s name was changed after Allahabad was renamed as Prayag Raj.

There have been demands to change names of several other towns and cities from parts of the country since the move was initiated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

While BJP leader Sangeet Som has demanded that the name of Muzaffarnagar must be changed to Laxminagar, the clamour has also grown for renaming Gujarat capital Ahmedabad as Karnavati.

In a recent media interaction, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had said that the state government would go ahead with the move if it manages to gather support to clear all legal hurdles. The same was later confirmed by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.