Ahead of the third test between India and England, President of India Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the newly revamped Motera Stadium in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
Hours after the stadium inaugural, the Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium has been renamed Narendra Modi Stadium after the Prime Minister. Renaming the stadium resulted in a war of words between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.
The Congress party breathed fire on the BJP party for renaming the stadium. The opposition termed the renaming as an insult to the legacy of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to mock BJP for renaming the stadium. As an obsolete reference to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS), the MP claimed that the BJP did this after realising that Patel had banned the RSS back when he was the Home Minister.
“Maybe they just realised the stadium was named for a Home Minister who had banned their parent organisation! Or maybe this is advance booking to ensure the next visiting Head of State is hosted here, like Trump? Or is this the beginning of a legacy-creation-thru-labelling spree?†his tweet reads.
Netizens have also slammed the union government for their decision and questioned what’s the need to rename the stadium which was named after Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, hailed as Iran Man of India. Is Narendra Modi greater than Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel? netizens questioned.
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) led Central government has backed the decision and said the Sports Complex’s name will remain Sardar Patel Sports Enclave, while the Cricket Stadium was only renamed.