Overview
- Mangal Prabhat Lodha has formally proposed changing the name of King Edward Memorial Hospital and said three alternative names were offered while keeping the 'KEM' abbreviation.
- Lodha told the Maharashtra legislative council that King Edward 'was like Kasab' and accused the monarch of looting India, a statement that drew sharp criticism from opposition members.
- The BMC Health Committee has reportedly approved renaming the hospital to 'Kaushalyashreshtha Ekalavya Memorial (KEM) Hospital' as part of the proposal.
- The Maharashtra government has stated it will not take a final decision until legal, historical and administrative reviews assess impacts on degrees, institutional records and services.
- KEM is a large, BMC-run hospital founded in 1926 that treats about 1.8 million outpatients and 85,000 inpatients a year so any renaming would involve administrative work on certificates and is likely to deepen political debate over colonial-era names.