What name change! Bakhtiyarpur my birthplace: Nitish Kumar

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday reacted sharply to a question on speculations over changing the name of Bakhtiyarpur, stating it was his birthplace.

“What rubbish!” said the chief minister when a reporter asked him about renaming Bakhtiyarpur. “Why will the name be changed. It is my birthplace,” he added.

Addressing the media after a ‘janata darbar’, the chief minister said, “Some people keep talking about Bakhtiyarpur without any reason.”

With a smile he then said when an Act on Nalanda University was tabled in Parliament, an MP had said the destroyer of the famed varsity had stationed his camp in Bakhtiyarpur. "Now, a man born in the same place is rebuilding Nalanda University.”

According to a report in Live Hindustan, BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur has renewed the name change demand which was raised two years ago by his party colleague Gopal Narayan Singh in the Rajya Sabha.

Stating that it was a matter of concern that oppressor Bakhtiyar Khilji who had destroyed Nalanda University was still being glorified, Singh had suggested Bakhtiyarpur Railway Station be renamed after famous Buddhist tourist spots.

He said Khilji had destroyed the world-renowned educational institute and killed 2,000 to 3,000 Buddhist monks and the new name could be after Nalanda or Rajgir.

A body backed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had also written to Kumar with a similar proposal days after Allahabad became Prayagraj and Faizabad district renamed as Ayodhya.