Yogi Adityanath government has replaced the word "Samajwadi" from government schemes with "Mukhyamantri"
The Yogi Adityanath government has stripped the word "Samajwadi" from government schemes and replaced it with "Mukhyamantri" (Chief Minister). So the Samajwadi ambulance service in UP will now be called the "Mukhyamantri ambulance service." This applies to everything in the UP government that former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had named after his party, minister Sidharthnath Singh said today.
The Samajwadi Party has objected, saying the word "Samajwadi" or Socialist finds a mention even in the Indian Constitution and must "not be dragged into politics." It's spokesperson Sunil Sajan noted, "William Shakespeare said 'what's in a name? A rose by any another name will smell as sweet.'"
Akhilesh Yadav himself clearly did not subscribe to the Bard's theory and had renamed several districts that his predecessor Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati had named after Dalit leaders. He had also scrapped social welfare schemes and awards that she had named for Dalit leaders and her mentor Kanshi Ram, when he came to power in 2012.
Mr Yadav gave the name Samajwadi to more than a dozen government schemes; the Samajwadi ambulances actually ran under the National Rural Health Mission and their being named after the then Chief Minister's party had caused a controversy.
Last year Akhilesh Yadav even launched a Samajwadi perfume saying then, "I once said rivers are Samajwadi, people of all castes and communities live by their banks. I named our laptops Samajwadi because they help eliminate discrimination, bringing internet to everyone on one platform. This perfume too will end differences between people."
There is in UP a Samajwadi smart phone scheme, pension scheme, health insurance scheme, youth employment scheme and many more. The name change order was given by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after a review meting last night.
The new BJP government had earlier decided to not distribute over 60 lakh ration cards printed by the previous government as they featured a photograph of the former Chief Minister.