UP Governor Ram Naik rejects British daily editor's stand on renaming of Bombay

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik has taken strong exception to a comment by an editor of a British daily attributing the renaming of Bombay as Mumbai to Hindu nationalism.

"Media reports cited the editor of British daily ' The Independent', Amol Rajan, as having said he will revert to using 'Bombay' instead of 'Mumbai' to take a stand against a nastier strain of Hindu nationalism. This is painful to me," Naik told PTI.

Naik, who was instrumental in the name change, said, "There was nothing to do with Hindutva behind the move. Changing the name was solely based on public sentiments."

"The editor, whose roots are in Bengal, is dishonouring the sentiments of the people," said the former Union petroleum minister, who hails from Mumbai and had represented it in the Lok Sabha several times.

According to media reports, Ranjan said his newspaper will switch to using Bombay rather than Mumbai while referring to the financial capital of India.