GUWAHATI: The Calcutta High Court has directed the Government of West Bengal to change the names of the two lions named Sita and Akbar to ensure that any controversy regarding the same is put to rest. This comes after the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had earlier filed a plea requesting that the names be changed, as per reports.
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The plea was being heard today on Thursday by Justice Saugata Bhattacharya, who observed that Sita is worshipped by a large majority of people in the country and Akbar was an efficient, successful and secular Mughal Emperor, and stated, "Mr Counsel, will you yourself name your own pet after some Hindu God or Muslim Prophet ... I think, if any one of us would have been the authority, none of us would have named them as Akbar and Sita. Can anyone of us think of naming an animal after Rabindranath Tagore? Sita is worshipped by a larger section of this country ... I also oppose naming the lion after Akbar. He was an efficient, successful and secular Mughal Emperor.”
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The Court further questioned the reasoning behind the decision and said, "You could have named it Bijli or something like that. But why to give such names of Akbar and Sita?"
The West Bengal government told the High Court that the naming of two lions in the Bengal Safari Park as Sita and Akbar was done earlier in 2016 and 2018 by the Tripura Zoo authorities way before the lions were recently transferred to the Bengal Safari Park in Siliguri.
The VHP had earlier filed a plea at the Calcutta High Court stating that naming the lioness Sita hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and infringed on their right to religion and requested that the name be changed.