Change to Mumbai or else, warns Thackeray

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday asked all the institutions in the city with the name Bombay as prefix to change it to Mumbai, failing which the party would target them.

'If the supporters of Bombay keep harping their tune, then the Bombaywallahs will be forced to flee,' Thackeray said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna.

'Samajhnewale ko ishaara kaafi hai. (intelligent people should take a cue from our indications). Be it a school, an English newspaper or any industry, we are giving an indication as to what we think they should do,' Thackeray wrote in the editorial.

'Those clamouring to retain the name of Bombay instead of changing it to Mumbai will be forced to flee,' Thackeray warned.

The Shiv Sena had targeted a leading newspaper, an elite school and a textile showroom for using Bombay in their name.

It also protested on Tuesday in front of the Bombay Stock Exchange, demanding a change in its name.

Twenty-four workers from the party and its campus wing Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena were also arrested outside the BSE under the Bombay Police Act for violating prohibitory orders on Tuesday.

The Shiv Sena had launched a campaign to rename the city from Bombay to Mumbai on Sunday, when they vandalised the boards of the Bombay Scottish School in Mahim.

In another incident, the Sainiks knocked down the Bombay Dyeing sign-boards outside the company's showroom in Worli and also targeted a Times Group newspaper, the Bombay Times.

The move to attack these institutions comes after Saamna editor Sanjay Raut wrote a stinging article, rebuking institutions for continuing to use 'Bombay' in their names.

Thackeray, in today's editorial, said: 'What is the harm if the name of Bombay high court is changed to Mumbai high court, Bombay Dyeing to Mumbai Dyeing or Bombay Stock Exchange to Mumbai Stock Exchange? If Calcutta can be changed to Kolkata, Bangalore to Bengaluru, Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram, then what is the problem if the name of Bombay becomes Mumbai?'

Thackeray said the central government had changed Bombay's name to Mumbai long ago, but unfortunately, some people were still opposed to using Mumbai even though the change of name had been done constitutionally