Any Bihari can understand the demand of changing Patna's name to Patliputra but changing her name to 'AzimaBad' is kind of 'too much'. This is called height of political bankruptcy.

Changing name of Patna to promote Urdu? Its hard to digest, literally! - Naren Singh, India/USA - Feb. 5, 2007

Laluji is truly a great man ! When Michael Jackson created 'Neverland' to molest kids, Laluji, made Bihar "Lalualand" to graze on the 'mithi ghaas' of Bihar's treasury.

Now he wants Patna to be named "Something-bad". Well Laluji, during your time you did make Patna "Barbad" and "Go! barbad! (gobarbad) " became your rallying cry !

Now Bihar is Nitish Kumar's headache. Now there is meat in the samosa of Bihar. Don't look for Aloo in it anymore, Lalu. It is time for you to ride your bhains into the sunset.

"Tere hathkande 'jaat' ke
Tere karnaame raat ke
Hindu the ya Muslim -
mar gaye sar kar jail mein
sun ne wale teri baat ke."

How's that? - Aarcee - Feb. 5, 2007

I am unable to draw any connection between the leader Ghulam Sarvar and Azeemabad. Azeemabad is one of the many names of Patna. But why name it in honour of Ghulam Sarvar? Beats me. - Ramjee Yadav - Feb. 6, 2007

I say leave Patna's name alone! What's wrong with Patna? It's short and simple and even Lalu and Sadhu can spell it. Besides, who are these idiots to decide what should be the name of the city, or the city does, in fact, needs a name change? They will change it to Pataliputra or Kusumpur or Azimabad and then 30 years from now, another moron politician will come along and want it changed back to Patna! What a bunch of idiots we are dealing with! - Aninda Bose - Feb. 6, 2007

This is height of Chamchagiri. I understand Lalu cannot do any good to Bihar but then leave the Patna as it is. Why he wants to please Muslims for the vote bank? If Patna is renamed to Pataliputra we can understand as this was its original name and has a great history and heritage. But renaming to Azimabad nowhere reflects the greatness of this city.

It's high time Lalu listens to Rabri and QUITS politics. It will be good for his health and we Biharis will be spared from his LALUGIRI. We had enough of him in last 15 years, we don't need more of Lalu and his LALUGIRI. - Samir Kumar Mishra, Brisbane, Australia - Feb. 6, 2007

As rightly pointed out, the name Patna is short and simple and Even Rabri Devi can write it with some months of practice. So why change it to something complex. If at all Lalooji feels a name change would be good for is sagging political graph and revive his MY card, how about changing his own name to Md. Laloo Khan Yadav, Rabri Devi can be renamed as Rabri Khatoon Yadav. That should please both ingredients of Laloo's MY formula. - Rajesh - Feb. 6, 2007

When Lalu went to USA and met president Bill Clinton, he boasted about how Bihar is reforming under Rabri regime because of him and his wife. "Why don't you think of changing the name of Bihar, if you have changed the face of Bihar so much"? Clinton asked.

"Ya, you are right, I have already thought of two names for it - Lalubad and Rabribad, and now you tell which one suits more?" Laluji asked.

Clinton shocked and asked, "If you guys have done so good for Bihar, why do you want to rename it as "Lalu Bad" and "Rabri Bad"??

Then he dropped the idea of renaming and we are fortunate today not to have that ;).

Since then he was restless and now it was the end of his restlessness. He has two motives for renaming the Bihar into Azimabad.

(i) Bihar will convert into Azimabad and the coming generation will NOT be able to say "Oh, Bihar was ruined by Lalu and Rabri".

(ii) Bihar is already taking a new shape under Nitishji, and Laluji wants to grab the credit for a developing Azimabad.

Lage rahiye Laluji ;) - Anand Singh - Feb. 6, 2007

Yes Lalu did forget one thing, the ultimate proxy name he had given to Patna, "Bar-bad". So he can keep on rattling anything senselessly now whatever comes in mind.

For Pataliputra, there is a sense. It was the first name of Patna (Patligram, Pataliputra) with whom not only Bihar's glory but India's glory was associated. It was Pataliputra, capital of the era when India was called the Golden Bird. It was the capital of strongest India ever, the proudest moments of Indian history in the form of Mauryans and Guptas, father of mathematics, Aryabhatta, or Kalidas in nearby, Budhdha and Mahavir.

But above all of them Lalu Yadav's logic felt that a forgetful brutal governor of Aurangzeb was more graceful and renowned thing to remember!

Lalu has become handicapped in every sense now. Since he can't do anything, he is doing these sort of old model political gimmicks. But please some intelligent sycophant of him let him know that evolution in society is occurring in fast pace and he is now on the verge of becoming an extinct species. These old model caste religion politics can no more give him return. And same time he is incapable to work for state development positively.

So in nutshell, desperation of Lalu is reflecting well. Nitish Kumar should book a cell ready for Lalu in Kanke, Ranchi, soon. - Ravi Shankar, Mountain View, CA - Feb. 6, 2007

I only want to raise one question: "what is wrong with Patna itself?" Is it like some major cities/capitals have undergone change in names, so we are also going like Bangaluru, Mysooru..? If it is the case then also we should go with "Pataliputra" rather going for Azeemabad. - Ashutosh Kumar - Feb. 6, 2007

The name of the Prestigious Medical College was changed from Prince of Wales Medical College to Patna Medical College possibly to bring it in line with Patna University, Patna Science College and Patna Women’s College. What did it achieve? The name change possibly accelerated rate of its deterioration.

With the change of the city name will we be changing the names of the Institutions to Azimabad so and so.

It is high time we get on with serious business on hand and sort out the mess, rather than dare messing up with the name. There is lots to be proud of the name’ Patna ‘ itself. Genuine Patna'ites know it . Because Patna we have known had have enough of amenities even as recently as 1960-70, peaceful, secure environment, Beautiful ghats, Boat clubs, excellent educational institutions, Libraries (Khuda Baksh, British Council, USIS, Sinha Library) clubs, shopping malls, before the new breed arrived there.

Patna is fine. Leave it alone please! - Neel Kamal - Feb. 7, 2007

Renaming Patna with some Muslim name is just a political game of getting minority votes without doing anything for them. Renaming a city does not bring anything good to city or the minority community. It will only result in a large extra expense which can be utilized better by using it for social welfare.

If leaders are keen to honor any person they should organize social service events on their birthdays or anniversaries. A "shramdan" by high & mighty to clean the city or similar effort will generate peoples' interest in improving civic conditions. If Patna has to take the pride of place among Indian cities, it needs to be clean & roads in best conditions, traffic in disciplined condition. Big wigs & their chamchas should not be exonerated from following rules, rather they should set an example. - Mithilesh Kumar, Delmar, NY, USA - Feb. 7, 2007

It is an absolutely absurd suggestion to appease and fool a particular community to garner vote and get a second chance to loot Bihar. There is nothing wrong in Patna and if at all one wants to change, change it to Pataliputra.

If the suggestor is so fond of changing names, he should himself change to Lalubuddin Ahmad Bukhari. - B. M. Mishra - Feb. 7, 2007

I am supportive of renaming Patna to Pataliputra, but not now. It will be useful only if outsiders (people not from Bihar) start thinking that Bihar has really changed. This time they will think that we are trying to escape. - Satya Prakash - Feb. 7, 2007

Discussion on this topic is now closed.