Gurugram: What’s in a reputation? Lots it will appear, going by the fissures within the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) in Haryana which have come out within the open over the identify of the Maharishi Chyawan Authorities Medical School in Koriawas village, Mahendragarh district.

The Rs 725.9-crore, 800-bed medical school, OPD providers of which began on 1 Could 2025, has change into a trigger for regional chauvinism and political stress, with villagers and a few BJP leaders insisting it’s named after freedom fighter Rao Tula Ram, however others, together with the state BJP management, are standing up for the prevailing identify in honour of the ayurvedic sage Maharishi Chyawan.

The medical school, constructed on 80 acres of land contributed by the Koriawas gram panchayat, was formally named Maharishi Chyawan Authorities Medical School, in honour of the sage’s historic affiliation with Dhosi Hill, a spot of spiritual significance within the space.

The selection, ‘legalised’ with signboards put up on 4-5 Could 2025, was met with outrage by villagers who had been anticipating the establishment to pay tribute to Rao Tula Ram, an iconic determine in Haryana’s historical past owing to his contribution within the 1857 Revolt.

The outrage grew louder when villagers defaced the school’s signage on 5 Could, with a police FIR being registered towards unknown individuals, although there are not any studies of arrests.

Since then, an indefinite dharna exterior the principle gate of the school, spearheaded by protest chief Nonihal Singh, has reached its 96th day as of 8 August 2025.

The agitating demonstrators, supported by greater than 150 gram panchayats in Mahendragarh, have introduced resolutions searching for to rename the school after Rao Tula Ram, whose battle web site at Nasibpur is barely 4 km away from there.

On 4 August, a tractor rally from Koriawas to Narnaul, with 100 tractors, ended with a memorandum being handed over to Deputy Commissioner Vivek Bharti, for Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, with 200 panchayat resolutions annexed.

BJP’s inner rift

The problem of naming has uncovered cracks inside the BJP, particularly within the Ahirwal belt, the place the celebration had gained three out of 4 Meeting seats within the 2024 elections. Native BJP MLA from Narnaul and ex-minister Om Prakash Yadav, a detailed aide of Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh—a great-grandson of Rao Tula Ram—has publicly defended the protesters.

Yadav threatened that if the school isn’t named after Rao Tula Ram, the BJP will undergo losses in elections within the coming polls citing the “warranted” demand based mostly on Rao Tula Ram’s legacy of greater than 5,000 sacrifices within the 1857 rebellion.

Speaking to ThePrint, Yadav mentioned there’s public sentiment within the area behind the demand to call the medical school after Rao Tula Ram.

Yadav was a minister of state in Manohar Lal Khattar’s Cupboard with unbiased cost of Social Justice and Empowerment, and Sainik and Ardh Sainik Welfare from November 2019 to 12 March 2024. When Nayab Saini changed Khattar on 12 March that 12 months, Yadav was not inducted and in his place. Abhe Singh Yadav, one other BJP MLA from the Ahirwal area and shut confidant of Manohar Lal Khattar, was inducted as an alternative.

Yadav instructed ThePrint that in a Jansamvad by former CM Manohar Lal Khattar two years again, Panchayats of over 150 villages met him and requested him to call the medical school after Rao Tula Ram.

Later, he, as legislator of the realm the place the medical school is positioned and Dharamveer Singh, BJP MP from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat, met Khattar and repeated the demand, to which the previous CM agreed.

Nonetheless, immediately, the federal government introduced the medical school could be named after Chyawan Maharishi.

“Rao Tula Ram is probably the most revered determine within the Ahirwal area who led the 1857 rise up towards the British with over 5,000 troopers. This was maybe the one rise up the place the British misplaced two senior generals. Alternatively, solely a small a part of Chyawan Rishi’s Ghosi Pahad falls in Haryana territory whereas the remainder is in Rajasthan. Even the Ashram of Chyawan Rishi falls in Rajasthan,” mentioned Yadav.

The BJP MLA made it clear that the agitation by the Panchayats of greater than 150 villages that has continued for over 90 days could be known as off except their demand was met.

Alternatively, BJP state president Mohan Lal Badoli defended the federal government’s transfer on a go to to Narnaul on 5 August 2025, by stating that the identify represents native sentiment and Maharishi Chyawan’s historic hyperlink to Dhosi Hill, which is the place his ashram is positioned. The protests had been derided by Badoli, including that society should look into the intentions of the protesters and that many establishments, roads, and statues already bear Rao Tula Ram’s identify.

“The federal government did properly. If the protesters’ demand of naming an establishment after Rao Tula Ram isn’t fulfilled right here, it is going to be fulfilled elsewhere,” he instructed the media, including that providers of the OPD have already begun underneath the prevailing identify.

Supporting the dissent, Nangal Choudhary MLA and former minister Dr Abhay Singh Yadav have brazenly objected to the renaming, contending on social media that politicising the identify of the school is inappropriate and that developmental work of the federal government must be welcomed.

“My humble request to all brothers and sisters of the 36 communities of Ahirwal is that after watching this video, please share your neutral and clear opinion on the place such sort of politics is taking our area. If working for the event of the area and speaking about progress is taken into account against the law, then what sort of politics are we supporting? Is it within the curiosity of the area to close down and destroy such a big establishment by means of political bullying? Please categorical your views brazenly and with out hesitation. I sincerely request you to share this video extensively throughout Ahirwal in order that we are able to collect everybody’s opinions. Thanks,” Abhe Singh Yadav wrote on his Fb web page on 6 August with a video of protesters saying that subsequent time they are going to include a 1,000 tractors, buffaloes and home animals and can block the medical school.

On 7 August, Abhe Singh Yadav once more posted on X: “So far as the self-proclaimed leaders of the Ahir group are involved, if you wish to see their true face, simply ask in any village concerning the previous meeting elections in Nangal Chaudhary. For these insecure and small-hearted folks pretending to be nice, the legendary Rao Tula Ram is merely a political protect, which they put on as per their comfort.”

Badoli and Abhe Singh Yadav didn’t reply to calls and messages by ThePrint.

Political and regional dynamics

The controversy has taken on political undertones, with village sarpanch Monica Yadav’s father-in-law Naunihal Singh alleging that the federal government’s reluctance to honour Rao Tula Ram stems from political tensions between Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh and the Haryana BJP management.

He added that Rao Inderjit, who has written to the federal government twice—in 2023 and 2024—requesting the school be named after his ancestor, has seen his pleas go unanswered, fueling hypothesis of intra-party rivalry.

Well being Minister Arti Singh Rao, the Ateli MLA and daughter of Rao Inderjit, met the protesters on 17 July throughout a go to to examine the medical school. She sat with them for some time and accepted their memorandum.

“She instructed us that she would take up the matter with Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini,” mentioned Pradeep Yadav, a protest chief.

ThePrint tried to succeed in Arti Rao by means of a WhatsApp message. This report shall be up to date if and when she replies.

Different BJP MLAs, comparable to Mahendragarh’s Kanwar Singh Yadav, have supported the identify change, consistent with regional sentiment within the Ahirwal belt, a stronghold of the Ahir group to which Rao Tula Ram belonged.

Alternatively, Dr Ramniwas ‘Manav’, the pinnacle trustee of an NGO Manumukt Manav Memorial Belief that spearheaded the marketing campaign for the identify because it stands in 2023, vindicated Maharishi Chyawan’s heritage, highlighting his worldwide popularity of creating Chyawanprash and his non secular stature to Dhosi Hill whereas chatting with ThePrint.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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