New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea seeking to set up a ‘renaming commission’ and said it will bring alive those issues and ‘keep the country on boil’.

Questioning the motive of the PIL, the top court said ‘India cannot be a prisoner of the past’. The plea was filed by a petitioner-advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay who sought a direction to the Centre to constitute a ‘Renaming Commission’ to restore ‘original’ names of ancient, cultural and religious places ‘renamed’ by invaders.

“This is a fact that our country was invaded and ruled by a foreign power. We cannot wish out selected part of our history,” the bench said while adding, “our country is secular and Hinduism is a way of life, which has assimilated everyone and there is no bigotry in it.”

In his plea, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay had said the government was not doing enough to rename the road named after the invaders. He also said retaining these names is against the sovereignty and other civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

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