Protests pour in on TMC’s Facebook page
August 21, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
KOLKATA: Protests against the proposed name change of West Bengal to Paschimbanga have been pouring in on various social networking sites, including the official Facebook page of the Trinamool Congress.
The group ‘Not Paschimbanga’, which began on Facebook within an hour of the announcement of the new name with a few memebers, grew to 1,544 in just 24 hours. The community has also decided to file a petition on reaching 2000 ‘likes’. In a matter of 24 hours there have been close to 30 groups on facebook alone where people are firmly criticising the government’s act of christening the state.
Facebook polls also mirror people’s sentiments. “Do you like the name change to Paschimbanga? Let’s see how much support is with Mamata’s decision,”went one of them.
A staggering 1,193 people have voted against it as compared to an insignificant 147 who have welcomed the name change.
The new name have left the people absolutely enraged and furious. Netizens are strongly voicing their opinion regarding the name change of the state. The common question raised by all is that if the government designed this move to get rid of a vestige of colonial heritage and bolster its dignity, the name Paschimbanga is not helping its cause.
“I lodge a strong protest against re-naming of the state as Paschimbanga. It is the single greatest mistake your government could ever commit, and dare I say,we didn’t vote you in to usher “change” into any and everything possible. Kindly retract on the name and adopt Bengal/Bangla or even keep WB. Miss CM, we were expecting better things,”added Annesh Bilas Thakur, who posted this on the All India Trinamool Congress (official) page.
When it was chosen that ‘west’ wil be discarded from ‘West Bengal’, what sense does it make to rename our state as ‘Paschimbanga’? Bengal or Bangla would have been better or even Banga would have been good. But its senseless to make it ‘Paschimbanga’! Not only does the name sound weird, it’s also very big, said Facebook user Jay Shade.
Social media is said to be the best place to express one’s opinion and Facebook perfectly reflects that. “The whole point of change of name is not satisfied. Always it was about keeping the unnecessary burdain of ‘West’ tag off our head but that ridiculous legacy of partition will still haunt us after all that fuzz about a ‘name change’. Ei muhurte ei poribortoner poriborton ghotanor jonyo mukhyamontri r kache argi janachhi,” wrote Nirveek Sengupta.
“People are trying to change Kolkata into London…well London has not changed its name since ages….,” wrote another. “Govt is trying to change the look of the city …. however check the condition of the roads … seems Yamraj is sitting waiting for the accident to happen so that he can complete his target…. flood…is killing people and here govt is busy building road dividers and footpaths… gosh what blunder have people done,”went another post.
The second most important question raised is we needed change but did it have to be so impudent, with all the jokes and jibes being made at the expense of the new name. “What is this Poschim Bongo and where can I smoke it?” one user quipped on Twitter.
The other jokes doing rounds is the name sounding similar to that of Congo, a place in Africa and the musical instrument Bongo.
