Mumbai: Controversy over naming of Kala Ghoda junction after former Israeli PM Shimon Peres – Times of India

MUMBAI: Despite opposition from a section of corporators, the BMC has named a junction in Kala Ghoda after former Israeli prime minister and Nobel peace prize laureate Shimon Peres. This is the first time that a prominent junction in Mumbai has been named after a foreign dignitary. The naming of the chowk after Peres has led to a fresh controversy with the SP and the Congress opposing the naming.
The BMC recently put up a street sign board at the junction which read, ‘Shimon Peres Chowk’ in Kala Ghoda. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress had opposed the proposal when it was discussed in 2018 saying though Peres had been a friend of India, he didn’t have any specific connection with Mumbai or Maharashtra.
According to a BMC official, the BJP had backed the plan to name the chowk between VB Gandhi Marg and Saibaba Marg in Kala Ghoda after Peres, who twice served as Israel’s prime minister and later as the country’s ninth president. He died aged 93 in 2016.
Officials said that the chowk was named without fanfare a few months ago months ago amid the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions.
According to the BMC’s rules, only a local corporator can formally suggest a title for a street or a junction. But in this case, local corporator Sujata Sanap, from the Shiv Sena, didn’t move any application.
“We didn’t move any proposal. It was moved by the then Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi using his special powers,” Sanap said.
Samajwadi Party MLA and corporator Rais Shaikh has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking him to direct the BMC to remove the newly installed street signs. “This naming of the chowk has been done in violation of all norms and without following the protocol laid down. This proposal was discussed in the civic group leaders meeting in 2018 and it was not approved. Then it was discussed in the ward committee and it was opposed there also. Despite this the BMC has named the chowk after Shimon Peres, which is illegal,” Shaikh said.
“Peres has no contribution to Mumbai, Maharashtra or even India for that matter. So giving his name to this chowk is not correct. We will protest strongly against this naming. I urge you to get this street sign removed and scrap the naming of the chowk after Shimon Peres,” Shaikh said.
The chowk currently has no name. It would have been the first junction in the city to be named after a foreign leader. The Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue is located at VB Gandhi Marg. Established in 1884, it is Mumbai’s second oldest Sephardic synagogue. Earlier, a huge Baghdadi Jewish community lived in the area.
“BJP corporator Makarand Narwekar had submitted one and it was rejected,” the official said. “Later, the then Municipal Commissioner submitted a proposal and it came up for discussion before the group leaders of different parties in the BMC,” the official said.