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| Photo Credit: The Hindu
GUWAHATI
After Mizoram and Nagaland, Meghalaya has refused to rename the health and wellness centres in the State as Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.
About 75% of the population in Meghalaya follows Christianity. The percentage of Christians in Mizoram and Nagaland is about 90%.
“We decided not to issue any notification to change the names of the health and wellness centres after receiving the advisory from the Centre [in November 2023]. Since health is a State subject, we have the right not to do as the Centre says,” Meghalaya’s Health and Family Welfare Minister, Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh told presspersons in the State’s capital Shillong.
Ms. Lyngdoh is a senior leader of the Conrad K. Sangma-led National People’s Party, which heads the coalition government in Meghalaya. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a minor partner in this government.
Less than a year ago, the Union Health Ministry decided to rename its flagship Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres as Ayushman Arogya Mandir (AAM) with the tagline ‘Arogyam Parmam Dhanam’ (health is the greatest wealth). There are 1.6 lakh such centres across the country.
Regional political parties in Meghalaya sniffed a “hidden agenda” of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre behind the renaming of the health and wellness centres. “Why, then, should a government-run centre bear the name of a Hindu place of worship?” Titosstarwell Chyne, the working president of the United Democratic Party said.
The Voice of the People Party also said the bid reflected a ‘Hindutva’ design.
Earlier, Mizoram sought an exemption from renaming the health and wellness centres as AAMs. The State’s Principal Secretary Esther Lalruatkimi formally told the Union Health Ministry twice that the rebranding “may foster adverse sentiments” among the people of her State, more than 90% of whom were Christians.
Nagaland’s Commissioner-Secretary for Health and Family Welfare, V. Kezo wrote a similar letter to the Centre in March.
The ‘mandir’ nomenclature was debated in the Lok Sabha five months ago when the BJP’s former Ladakh MP, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal asked if it was permissible by the government to translate the word into local languages.
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