NITISH PLAYS THE NAME GAME

Gaya changes its name to Gayaji, as renaming politics comes to Bihar. Nitish hasn't changed places with the BJP, yet. But his yielding maps an ongoing soil erosion

- By Amitabh Srivastava

IN INDIA, AND IN GLOBAL SPACES TO WHICH its heritage speaks, the name 'Gaya' is a suffix in 'Bodh Gaya'—and evokes the Buddha. A place of silence, under a pipal by the banks of the Phalgu, where Gautama attained Buddhahood. Yet, on May 15, something ruffled that quietude. 'Gaya' was being renamed as 'Gayaji'. The whole district. No criticism came, not even from the Opposition, as the Nitish Kumar cabinet cleared this old rechristening proposal. Some, though, noticed a striking departure from Nitish's own record. In over 20 years at the helm of Bihar, he had never before approved the renaming of a single district. In yielding now, months short of an assembly election, he, too, has bathed in a different river.