Meerut: The renaming of the iconic Chaudhary Charan Singh ghat on the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar by UP irrigation minister Dharampal Singh has made Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) party workers see red. After remaining low key since the party’s rout in the UP assembly polls, the issue has given its workers a reason to take to the streets to protest against the move which they claim “insults the legacy of the greatest farmer leader of the country”.Groups of RLD workers staged protests on Thursday across western UP, once considered a stronghold of the party. They have also sent a letter to governor Ram Naik, seeking his intervention in the matter.The ghat is a beautifully maintained and well-guarded one, situated less than a mile from Har Ki Pauri. The UP government’s irrigation department controls the flow of water in the Ganga and that is why has the power to rename the ghat in Haridwar, Uttarakhand.“This move by BJP to change the name of the ghat is quite absurd, The party (BJP) has even moved beyond renaming places which are named after Mughal emperors. It is now targeting great farmer leaders like Chaudhary Charan Singh, who is perhaps the greatest farmer leader that the country has seen. We should in fact be honouring him with a Bharat Ratna,” said Merajuddin Ahmed, national general secretary of the RLD.UP minister Dharampal Singh, during a visit to Haridwar on April 30, had announced that the name of the ghat would be changed to Shankaracharya ghat. Citing the Centre’s recently launched crusade against VIP culture, Singh had said, “The previous name of the ghat owed its origin to the VIP culture. It is now being named after Shankaracharya to mark the end of the discriminatory culture that was nurtured for long.”Lashing out at the minister, Rajkumar Sangwan, organizing secretary of the RLD in western UP, said, “Is Chaudhary Charan Singh a symbol of VIP culture? That is the most absurd thing I have ever heard in my life. He was a symbol of the struggle of the poor farmers and labourers. He was the exact opposite of a symbol of VIP culture. This just shows the mindset of BJP and its vindictive attitude. It wants everything to be named after its own people. The party leadership thinks that all that has happened in the country is because of them. There was no one before them,” said an agitated Sangwan at Commissioner crossing in Meerut.“It is an insult to farmers of this country. The BJP has started claiming that it is pro-farmer party. Is this its pro-farmer move? Chaudhary Charan Singh is, even today, a symbol of hope for all farmers in the country. This is a slap on the face of farmers by BJP,” said Ainuddin Shah, UP west general secretary of the RLD.

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