Game of the name

Move to rename Hyderabad revives a long-buried past

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has placed so much importance on a municipal election that it has deployed a host of heavyweights led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to campaign for the party in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections scheduled today. The motive is transparent: To create the ground for the party in the Telangana Assembly elections due in 2023 (the BJP has two seats in the 120-member House). This is a valid political objective; the toxic communal rhetoric and historical fabrications on which the party is campaigning are not. Hyderabad’s integrated Hindu-Muslim ethos has long been