By Umer Maqbool

Srinagar: The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government’s move to rename the health centres as “Ayushman Arogya Mandirs” has stirred a fierce controversy in Ladakh, with the region’s most influential Buddhist organisation and elected representatives calling this an affront to the sentiments of the people living in the two-district Union Territory.

Decision, controversy

In November last year, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare decided to rename the Ayushman Bharat- Health & Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) as ‘Ayushman Arogya Mandirs’ with the tag line ‘Arogyam Parmam Dhanam’.

The ministry wrote to the states and Union Territories in a letter dated November 25, 2023 to implement the rebranding exercise and asked them to submit photographs of these health facilities with the new title by December 31, 2023. It even earmarked Rs 3,000 per facility for this rebranding exercise.

However, the implementation of the decision has not gone down well in Ladakh, especially in Buddhist-majority Leh district, where a prominent religious group has taken strong objection to it and written to the elected bodies of the region to raise their concerns with the administration of the Union Territory over the matter.

“The recent order of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, renaming the Govt. medical aid centers/ health and family welfare centers as “Ayushman Arogya Mandir’ is unfortunate and tantamount to playing with the sentiments of the people of Ladakh,” Chering Dorjey Lakrook, acting president, Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) wrote to the chief executive councilors of the Hill Councils of both Leh and Kargil districts.

The LBA has asked heads of both the elected bodies to get the decision rescinded. “India is a secular country and using religious names and symbols in government departments is unconstitutional and unacceptable,” Dorjay said, in the letter.

Talking to The Wire, Dorjay, who was also a minister in the People’s Democratic Party-BJP government in the erstwhile state of J&K, said that this decision is not acceptable to them.

“It is a conspiracy against us. What is the fun of naming hospitals as mandirs? It is one of the steps towards making India a Hindu rashtra,” he alleged.

The LBA is the most powerful religious group in Buddhist-dominated Leh and is seen as the guardian of Buddhist identity in the region. It has considerable influence on social and political matters of the region.

This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here .