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JAIPUR: With elections around the corner, the Vasundhara Raje government has approved a long-pending demand: renaming villages with Muslim-sounding names with names rooted in Hindi. The renaming of four villages in communally sensitive Chittorgarh — Mohammadpur as Medikh Kheda, Nawabpur as Nai Sarthal, Rampura-Ajampur as Sitaramji Kheda and Mandfiya as Sanwaliyaji —has been approved.

Sources at the revenue department say more names will be changed in the coming weeks. The renaming of villages four months before the state polls in November-December is seen as a move by BJP to appease its vote bank. Three other villages have already been renamed — Miyon-Ka-Bara is now Mahesh Nagar (Barmer), Narpada is Narpura (Jalore) and Islampur Khurd is Pichanwa Khurd ( Jhunjhunu ).

Sources said a proposal to rename Salemabad, in Ajmer, as Shri Nimbark Tirth is in the final stages. The move has invited sharp reactions from political parties and civil rights groups which have unanimously called it a bid to polarise society. Terming the exercise an attempt to hide the failures of the government, former CM Ashok Gehlot said the move just before polls was unnecessary.

Yasmeen Farooqui, member of the All India Muslim Law Board, said, “Muslims have never felt as insecure in Rajasthan as under the Raje regime.

Mob lynchings, hate crimes, dropping Muslim writers from textbooks, systematic closure of Urdu schools, now renaming of villages… What next?” The reactions have surprised revenue minister Amra Ram Choudhary, who said that none of the villages renamed is Muslim-dominated and no villager contested the proposal during the process.

