• Source:JND
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The Maharashtra Congress on Monday sought an explanation from the Mumbai Metro officials after the latter changed the name of a station from ‘Nehru Science Centre’ to ‘Science Centre’ in Worli, located on the recently inaugurated Line 3. Calling it a ploy of the BJP, the Congress said that the station name should be reinstated and that the changed name is an insult to the first Prime Minister of India. 

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mumbai Congress’s chief spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that the area got its identity from the Nehru Science Centre. “Yet, because the BJP suffers from an allergy to the name Nehru, they have deliberately omitted it and named the metro station merely as Science Centre,” he added.

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Sawant further said that the actions of the authorities were highly objectionable and a deep insult to the memory of former Prime Minister and world icon, Bharat Ratna Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, whose vision laid the foundations of India’s scientific temper, industrial progress, and modern outlook. 

“Once again, this act exposes the petty, intolerant, and vindictive mindset of the BJP,” Sawant added.

What Is The Controversy?

At the heart of the controversy lies the Metro’s decision to omit ‘Nehru’ from its station’s publicity material, which identifies the stop simply as Science Centre or Science Museum. The naming of the place clashes directly with the established official identity of the Nehru Science Centre, the major government-run science education institution located on Dr E Moses Road in Worli.

The Mumbai Congress argued that the move was designed to politically obliterate the reference of Nehru from the discourse. The Congress also cited similar changes done across the country, including the renaming of the Nehru Memorial Museum to Prime Ministers Museum and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) with My Bharat. It added that the metro station name change was part of a broader pattern. 

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What Did The MMRC Officials Say?

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which operates the Metro Line-3 responded to the allegations and said that the official nomenclature of the station name was recorded as ‘Science Museum’ in a 2013 notification and the station was named according to this official notification. MMRC officials further said that the station name was justified because the actual building is officially named “Science Centre”. 

But the MMRC in its own social media promotes the Line-3 station facilities by listing nearby ‘Discovery Hubs’ that include the usage of the term ‘Nehru Science Centre’ and the ‘Nehru Planetarium’.

Responding to the justifications of MMRC, Mumbai Congress leader asked, “It has been 12 years, and the BJP-led government changed the original name too. Why was Nehru’s name omitted?” He further added that the entire planning and designing of the Metro route was completed during the tenure of the Congress in 2014.