What is in a me?

Contrary to what Shakespeare would have us believe, there is quite a lot in a me in India. After all, we are not likely to be talking about roses alone. There are mes for airports, universities, colleges and schools, chairs in universities, awards, stadiums, major plans and projects of the government and so on. And since it is customary to me these after leaders, only certain mes are right in India and others are not. And one cannot get away with calling a rose a tulip. There is no is room for such liberties in the case of persol mes. This is a fact that was recently underscored with the proposal to reme Indira Gandhi Intertiol Airport of Delhi as Mahatma Gandhi Intertiol Airport. And for all we know, this might well happen one of these days. In India, the process of calling a rose by any other me is a one-way initiative. There is no going back on it. For instance, the Indira Gandhi Intertiol Airport was known as Palam airport since 1962. It was only in 1986—two years after Indira Gandhi’s assassition—that the me was changed to Indira Gandhi Intertiol Airport. And that is what has been happening to more than 450 government plans and projects, 98, universities and educatiol institutions, 19, stadiums, 28 sports tourments, 39 seats in universities, 51 awards, five airports and ports and 15 scholarships not to speak of the thousands of small institutions, roads, squares and buildings med after Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and his grandson Rajiv Gandhi. It is as though India won its freedom without any leaders from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family. One is astonished at the utter failure of successive governments in India to me institutions, plans and projects, roads, airports and buildings after other leaders of our freedom movement and after distinguished writers, scientists, artists, musicians and great achievers of India. It is as though this great country had only one family worth talking about and commemorating. It is for this reason at least, that the move to change the me of the Delhi Intertiol airport is a welcome step.