Rajbanshis join airport renaming fray... N Bengal community wants Bagdogra Airport to be named after warrior Vishwaveer Chilarai

HT, 7 July 2015: The list of names being put forward for renaming Bagdogra Airport grew longer on Tuesday, as the native Rajbanshis demanded that the airport be named after Vishwaveer Chilarai, a proud son of the soil.

The Rajbanshis, who take great pride in Chilarai, want the airport to be named as Vishwaveer Chilarai Airport.

Several political parties and organisations have already put forward names that they want the airport to be named after.

Chilarai, the younger brother of King Naranarayan, who headed the Koch dynasty that ruled over the region in the 16th century, commanded the Koch army.

He became a cult figure for natives for several heroic deeds and was even compared to such great warriors as Napoleon and Chhatrapati Shivaji. Such outfits as the Kamtapur Prog ressive Party (KPP), which claims to represent the Rajbanshis, and several ideologues of the community stepped up the demand for the Centre to honour the great commander of the Koch kingdom by naming the airport after him.

The Rajbanshi outfits have already started mobilising public support for their campaign.

The BJP, too, has jumped into the fray and wants the airport to be named after saffron ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

The Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association (EFTTOA), the largest organisation of travel and tour operators in North Bengal and Sikkim, has also stepped up the demand for the airport to be named as Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Airport.

The Confederation of Indian Industry is also in the fray and wants the airport to be named as Siliguri Airport.

However, topping all is the demand by the people of Darjeeling Hills, who want the airport to be named after Tenzing Norgay, the first to conquer Mount Everest.

Nalini Ranjan Ray, a member of the Rajbanshi community, strongly argued in favour of renaming Bagdogra Airport after Chilarai saying it would be a deserving honour for the great warrior and would also be an acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by the Rajbanshis during construction of the airport.

Ray, an ex-serviceman who is currently the chief manager (security) at State Bank of India, New Delhi, said, “Our forefathers gave away their fertile pieces of land for free to the British East India Company for setting up the strategically important airport during the Second World War. Renaming the Bagdogra Airport after Vishwaveer Chilarai would be due recognition of the sacrifices of our forbears.”

“Once the airbase became operational, as a good gesture, the Royal Indian Air Force gave a free ride to some of our forefathers in the initial flights taking off from the newly constructed military air base,” Ray wrote in his blog.

“The native Rajbanshi people have a sentimental attachment to the Bagdogra Airport,” Ray said.

“It will be great national service, if local indigenous Rajbanshi people are honoured by renaming Bagdogra airport as Vishwaveer Chilarai Airport,” Ray wrote in his blog.

Atul Roy, the KPP president, said, “Soon, we will write to the civil aviation minister asking for the airport to be named as Vishwaveer Chilarai Airport.”