First it was the name row over Bombay and Mumbai. Now, the Shiv Sena has targetted Pune. On May 12, the Shiv Senas student wing, Bharati Vidyarthi Sena (BVS), issued a warning to establishments that were still going with the name Poona, to switch to Pune. They gave them a weeks deadlineit lapsed on Monday but they have extended it.
To the 500-odd outfitsstores, hospitals, colleges, and clubsthe demand has come like a bolt from the blue. The board of one of the stores in the city has read Poona for the past 100 years, another for 80. We have had generations before us running the establishment under this name. How can anyone expect us to be comfortable with anything else? asks one of storekeepers.
The process involving a change of name is cumbersomeshopkeepers say they would need to submit applications to at least six different offices. It is time consuming and costly. And then its also not a government order like it was in the case of establishments having to put up the names of their shops in Marathi, said another shopkeeper.
Meanwhile, Ajay Shinde, city president BVS, said that by calling for a name change, they were continuing their efforts started two years ago when they ensured that every establishment put up its boards in Marathi too.
He calls this Part II of the campaign and is emphatic that soon there will be no trace of Poona in the city. The student leader is planning a press conference soon where he says he will reveal all: the logic and intentions behind the move and how they plan to set about this crusade in the city.
Neelam Gorhe, Shiv Sena MLC and an activist, defends the move: This is a representative movement to make people more sensitive towards the local culture and heritage. People who love the city should be willing to change to Pune on their own, said Gorhe.
So will Poona Club, Poona Drug Store, Poona Cheap Store, Poona College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Poona Coffee Shop, Poona Merchants Co-operative Bank or Poona Tyres soon drop the Poona? No one quite knows but no one is happy that the residents loyalty is being measured by the name that they keep.
The name game is an uncertain one but Shinde remains supremely confident of the road ahead. He insists he has been receiving calls from various establishments who have expressed their willingness to change the name but say that one week is too short a period for doing so. We realise this is true. So as long as people show their intention to make the change, we will give them more time to do so. But of course that timeline will also be clearly defined, he said.
And while there have been no instances of boards being brought down or defaced yet, the Sena is not ruling out that option. According to its activists, if the citizens make the change willingly, they will not resort to any coercion. But resistance would mean retalliation. Shiv Sena style, says Shinde ominously.
Once they have succeeded in getting Poona removed from boards, will the Sena stop at that? Or once they are done with wiping out Poonas name from the city, will they turn their attention to the 1,000-odd Poonawallas in the city and insist they call themselves Punewalla?