Kerala to be renamed Keralam

The State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution urging the Central government to officially change the name of the State from ‘Kerala’ to ‘Keralam.’

The resolution was moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who urged the Centre to change the state’s name to ‘Keralam’ in all languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Presenting the resolution, the Chief Minister said that the state was called ‘Keralam’ in Malayalam, but in other languages, ‘Kerala’.

The need to form a united Kerala for the Malayalam speaking communities had strongly emerged since the time of the national freedom struggle, the Chief Minister said.

“But the name of our state is written as Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution. This Assembly unanimously requests the Union Government to take immediate steps to amend it as ‘Keralam’ under Article 3 of the Constitution and it be renamed as ‘Keralam’ in all the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution,” he said.

The resolution was accepted by the Congress-led UDF opposition which did not suggest any amendments or modifications in it.

Thereafter, it was declared as unanimously adopted by the Assembly by Speaker A N Shamseer, based on a show of hands.

A day ago, the Kerala Assembly unanimously passed a resolution against the Central government’s “unilateral and hasty” plan to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country.

CM Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that the implementation of the UCC would topple the Constitution’s secular character.

(Picture Courtesy: PTI)