The Centre has renamed Port Blair, the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, to ‘Shri Vijaya Puram’ to “free the nation from colonial imprints”. Port Blair is the entry point for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The city was named after Captain Archibald Blair, a British colonial navy official of the East India Company.

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the decision in a post on X and said, “While the earlier name had a colonial legacy, Sri Vijaya Puram symbolises the victory achieved in our freedom struggle and the A&N Islands’ unique role in the same.”

Inspired by the vision of PM @narendramodi Ji, to free the nation from the colonial imprints, today we have decided to rename Port Blair as “Sri Vijaya Puram.”

While the earlier name had a colonial legacy, Sri Vijaya Puram symbolises the victory achieved in our freedom struggle…

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 13, 2024

“Andaman and Nicobar Islands have an unparalleled place in our freedom struggle and history. The island territory that once served as the naval base of the Chola Empire is today poised to be the critical base for our strategic and development aspirations,” Mr Shah said.

“It is also the place that hosted the first unfurling of our Tiranga by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Ji and also the cellular jail in which Veer Savarkar Ji and other freedom fighters struggled for an independent nation,” the Home Minister said.

The city is popular for the infamous Cellular Jail National Memorial, which was once a prison where many freedom fighters and people of other nationals were imprisoned.

In July, Rashtrapati Bhavan’s iconic ‘Durbar Hall’ and ‘Ashok Hall’ were renamed ‘Ganatantra Mandap’ and ‘Ashok Mandap’, respectively.

“There has been a consistent endeavour to make the ambience of the Rashtrapati Bhavan reflective of the Indian cultural values and ethos,” the President’s Secretariat said.

In the defence forces, the Centre, to shed colonial legacy, ended the practice of carrying batons by all Indian Navy personnel with immediate effect. The Indian Navy also changed its insignia as well which was inspired by the seal of Chhatrapati Shivaji.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday revealed that his father was on a hijacked flight in 1984 and said he had a unique window on “both sides” in such situations – the perspective of family members and those in the government.

Mr Jaishankar was answering a question during a community event in Geneva about the recently released television series on the hijacking of IC-814 in 1999.

Mr Jaishankar told the audience how as a young officer then, he was part of the team dealing with the hijack situation on the one hand and on the other, he was part of the group of families putting pressure on the government.

During the question and answer session after his address to the Indian community, a member of the audience asked the Minister about his comments on the recently released series ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’ on Netflix, which he said, showed “the bureaucracy and the government dealing with hijacking in poor light.” With a disclaimer that he has not watched the series, Mr Jaishankar went on to reveal his personal connection with the hijacking incident.

“In 1984 there was a hijacking. I was a very young officer. I was part of the team which was dealing with it. I rang up my mother, actually, to tell her, ‘Look, I can’t come. There’s a hijacking,” he said elaborating how it was his turn to go home and feed his young son as his wife too was working.

“And then I discovered, my father was on the flight. The flight ended up in Dubai. It’s a long story, but fortunately, nobody got killed. It could have ended as a problem,” he added.

On July 5, 1984, an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked from Pathankot and taken to Dubai. After more than 36 hours, 12 pro-Khalistani hijackers surrendered to authorities and released all 68 passengers and six crew members unharmed.

Mr Jaishankar was an IFS officer and became a minister after his retirement. His father K Subrahmanyam was an IAS officer and a regular commentator on strategic issues.

“And it was interesting because on the one hand, I was part of the team which was working on the hijacking. On the other hand, I was part of the family members who are pressing the government for the hijacking. So actually, I have that very unique window on both sides, in that sense of the problem,” he added.

“So, often these are situations and movie guys don’t make the governments look good. The hero is supposed to look good. Then nobody would watch the movie and you got to accept that,” he commented, evoking peals of laughter from the audience.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Madhabi Puri Buch, Sebi chief, and her husband Dhaval have issued a detailed rebuttal against Congress Party’s allegations of conflict of interest. They clarified relationships with entities like ICICI Bank and Pidilite, stating that the accusations were based on illegally obtained income tax returns and maliciously distorted facts to mislead the public.