JOIN USAurangzeb Road in Lutyens Delhi will be renamed as Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Road after the former President, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) decided in a meeting on Friday.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the council decision in a tweet: “Congrats. NDMC jst now decided to rename Aurangzeb Road to A P J Kalam Road (sic).” A senior NDMC official also confirmed the decision. Soon, BJP national secretary Maheish Girri tweeted: “Happy to share that NDMC has today (Friday) decided to rename Aurangzeb Road as Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Road. Thank u all for your support in this campaign!”
Girri had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider renaming the road after Kalam to correct the “wrongs” of history. He was quoted telling a news channel earlier, “Do we ever name our children by the name of a devil?” Aurangzeb is the sixth Mughal emperor who ruled over a considerable part of the subcontinent in the 17th century.
“I thank Narendra Modi ji, Amit Shah ji, Venkaiah Naidu ji, NDMC, public, media and the social media for making this possible,” said Girri on Friday.
MP Meenakshi Lekhi told Deccan Herald: “I had submitted in a 10-point agenda to the council chairperson in August that the road be renamed after Dr AP J Abdul Kalam — a personality who is respected across all religions. People have memories of Aurangzeb as a cruel ruler and it is not justified that a road in the capital be named after him.”
“Some people from other parties are trying to grab the limelight after the road was renamed. However, we have extensively campaigned on social media as well for the renaming,” said Lekhi. She added that the issue was first raised by her in December 2014. Both Lekhi and Kejriwal are members of the NDMC.