Requests that the park be named in honour of Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa
Close on the heels of BJP MLA C.T. Ravi seeking to rename Indira Canteens, Mysuru MP Pratap Simha has urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to rename Rajiv Gandhi National Park at Nagarahole in honour of Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa.
His letter to the CM follows an online petition launched by a few individuals early in August urging the Karnataka government to rename the park after Field Marshal Cariappa.
The online petition has garnered nearly 15,000 signatures. It argues that the park was originally known as Nagarahole and was renamed after Rajiv Gandhi ‘to please a particular family and its party’. Hence, the petition calls for either reverting to the original name or rename the park in honour of Field Marshal Cariappa who was from Kodagu.
In his letter dated August 30, Mr. Simha argued that 3 out of 103 national parks in India bear the name of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, including the one at…