Whats in a reputation? Pakistan Mukku sparks political row in Kerala as BJP pushes for identify change

A relatively innocuous place identify which used to evoke nothing greater than curiosity, has now been entangled in a cultural controversy dictated by bigger geo-political occasions. For a long time, a small area in Kunnathoor grama panchayat, positioned close to the border of Kollam and Pathanamthitta districts in Kerala, has been often known as Pakistan Mukku. ‘Mukku’ means Junction in Malayalam.

Now, after the Public Works division (PWD) put up a board indicating the place identify after a highway renovation work, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala State basic secretary Anoop Antony Joseph has tried to rake up an argument.

“In at the moment’s Kerala beneath CPM rule, you’ll be able to’t have a good time Operation Sindoor… however you’ll be able to ‘proudly’ have a village named after Pakistan. There’s a spot referred to as ‘Pakistan Mukku’ (junction). When BJP moved to rename it, even the frequent public agreed. But the Communist govt refused to alter, and PWD has reinstalled the board (sic),” he wrote in X (previously Twitter).

In May 2025, within the aftermath of the India-Pakistan battle after the Pahalgam assault, a BJP member of the Kunnathoor panchayat had raised a requirement to move a decision to alter the identify.

“The panchayat committee did ahead the demand to the State authorities to alter the identify because the panchayat doesn’t have the powers to make identify modifications. Now, that is in all probability being made a problem as a result of elections are approaching,” Kunnathoor panchayat president Ok. Valsala Kumari advised TheHindu.

N. Thulasi, a CPI(M) member of the panchayat, who made the only real dissenting opinion towards the renaming, says he had opposed the transfer because the opinion of the residents of the realm was not sought.

“We all have been listening to this identify since we have been born. It is a spot the place individuals of all religions stay peacefully. No one from there has raised a requirement for a reputation change, nor was a survey performed to gather their opinions. That is why I took a contrarian stand. Years in the past, somebody made an try to alter the identify to Shanthisthan Mukku and later to Indira Nagar. But none of those names caught,” he says.

Another Pakistan Mukku

The Kallara grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram additionally has a spot named Pakistan Mukku.

Maniyan, ward member of the Aruvippuram ward through which the place is positioned, says there was no demand from the individuals to alter the identify.

However, nobody in both of those locations is bound in regards to the origins of the identify.