Ponder Point

Politicians have a penchant for announcing intent with fanfare and then having little diligence to follow through with action. The classic example is the renaming of Bangalore and other cities to alternate names.

A quick background this issue:

• 11-Dec-2005: Karnataka government announced that it had accepted the proposal by Jnanpeeth awardee U R Ananthamurthy to rename Bangalore to its Kannada name Bengaluru.
• 27-Sep-2006: Bangalore Mahanagara Palike passed a resolution to implement the proposed name change.
• 7-Oct-2006:  Karnataka Government accepted this resolution.
• 1-Nov-2006:  Karnataka Government implements the name officially, pending central government clearances.

It is one thing to announce a name change for a city. However, managing the change and implementing it thoroughly is another. Granted change takes time and people need time to adjust. But still, are the politicians who announced these with fanfare doing enough to implement the change.

Here is a sampling of what people call the city:

There are some who call it Bengaluru:

1. The city’s Airport is called Bengaluru Airport.
2. BBMP (city corporation) calls it Bengaluru thankfully!
3. Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways call it Bengaluru.
4. Wikipedia redirects Bengaluru to Bangalore. The article refers to the city many times as Bengaluru.

There are others who still call it Bangalore:

• The Indian Railways calls the city Bangalore.
• Incredible India, India’s widely publicized Tourism pitch calls it Bangalore.
• The “Namma Metro” BMRCL is no better. It calls the city Bangalore not withstanding the local pitch for the Metro!
• BDA (city development authority) is no better, it is out of sync with BBMP (corporation) on the city’s name.
• BangaloreOne, BESCOM, BWSSB (Water and sewage board), BCP (city police), BMLTA (Land Transport authority),  still use the previous name Bangalore.
• And  believe it or not, the official Karnataka government website still calls the city Bangalore!!

Guess what, the average Bangalorean (Bengalurean for others) still calls the city Bangalore!

Picture this. Imagine you were traveling to the city and didn’t know what to call it? – Bangalore / Bengaluru / Bangalooru?! The state government really needs a serious reality check. They need to get their together and get this issue sorted out pronto!

To add to this now the Official Karnataka website now redirects to www.karunadu.gov.in already. Renaming Karnataka to Karunadu is probably in the works!

If the government is really serious about the name change, here is what they need to do:

• Work with the central government to jointly and rapidly implement the change.
• Lead by example and implement the change in all state government bodies, websites and forums.
• Have clear rules that enforce the change.
• Ensure billboard, hoardings, websites uniformly reflect the change.
• Manage the change actively with the clear transition plan.
• Run a re-branding campaign for the city. This needs to be a global campaign (take professional help). Bangalore is a name that is etched in minds of people globally. Changing it is not so easy.

The real issue is one of urgent and rapid implementation, than everyone being stuck mid way through a half hearted implementation. May be U.R. Ananthamurthy the prime advocate of the name change should voice his concern to about the slow and half hearted implementation.

Related news stories:

bangalore, bengaluru, rename