Mumbai: First there was the name of the father, then the name of the son, then the name of other holy ghosts and now Rajiv Gandhi's name. For the Congress party, when it's time to build bridges with the voters, it's also time to invoke the family name.
NCP leader Sharad Pawar suggested that the link be named after late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, a clear signal to Sonia Gandhi for mending any NCP-Congress divides.
"We have named the Bandra Worli sea link after Rajiv Gandhi because he has worked in so many fields," Pawar said.
But Pawar's attempt to bridge the political divide with the Congress has angered the Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena held a 'spontaneous' protest rejecting the new name.
In the land of Marathi pride, for every Rajiv Gandhi there must be a Veer Savarkar. For the Shiv Sena, politics has always been the name of the game.
Shiv Sena leader, Jitendra Janawale said, "This is wrong. The bridge should be named after Veer Savarkar."
Veer Savarkar, Dr Ambedkar, Chhtrapati Shivaji or even Rajiv Gandhi - Mumbaikars say these official names for landmarks have little to do with public appeasement and more to do with scoring political points.
The average Mumbaikar would re-christen the bridge as Mumbai ki shaan (the pride of Mumbai) if they could.
Ad-man Prahlad Kakkar who took his first drive on the sea link didn't seem surprised at the name-game politics.
He says he would rather the bridge be called Mumbaichi sumudra udi ( Mumbai's leap over the sea).
But when traffic jams clog the bridge and boats get stuck nearby, then as Shakespeare said, what's in a name.
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