It changed the flag, renamed the streets and removed the portrait of King George VI from the rupee. But when India won its independence from Britain 60 years ago last week, the new Government overlooked one thing: the international registration code or “tail number” on Indian aircraft.

They still carry the letters VT – standing for Viceroy’s Territory – as a prefix to the alphanumeric codes painted on their tails to identify their nation of origin.

The Government, fresh from celebrating six decades of freedom, has renewed its request for a new prefix to eradicate one of the most pervasive, if discreet, legacies of colonial rule. Praful Patel, the Minister for Civil Aviation, told Parliament on Thursday that he had asked for a new code from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). “I am keen that we get a code that can stand for something we want, something to do with India,” he told The Indian Express.

The ICAO, a United Nations agency based in Montreal, was established in 1944 to draw up international regulations and standards for air travel. It is responsible for assigning the codes for airlines, airports and individual aircraft used by air traffic controllers across the world.

It assigned the code VT to British India in 1944, three years before the country was divided into the independent states of India and Pakistan. India kept VT, while Pakistan was assigned AP. Britain now uses G. Several other former British colonies and territories still use codes that begin with V, such as Australia (VH), Antigua and Bermuda (V2), and the Falkland Islands (VP-F). Others have changed theirs, such as Fiji, which now uses DQ, and Kenya, which uses 5Y.

The proposal to change India’s code was raised under the previous Government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP has also led the campaign to change the nonanglicised names of Indian cities, such as Bombay and Madras, back to their original ones – Mumbai and Chennai respectively.

It tried to change India’s code to BM, which stands for Bharat Mata (Mother India), or BH, for Bharat (India), but discovered that the B series had been allocated to China.

Then it looked into changing it to IU, for Indian Union, or IR, for Indian Republic, only to find that the I series had been assigned to Italy.

The latest request for a national code was put forward this year by the heads of several Indian airlines, which are expanding into international routes. Air India, the national carrier, is keen to change the code because it merged with Indian Airlines, the state-run domestic carrier, recently and has ordered several new aircraft.

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