The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday wrote to the New Delhi Municipal Council demanding that the names of five roads that bear the “symbol of slavery of the Mughal era” be renamed.
Adesh Gupta, the chief of Delhi BJP unit, asked the civic body to rename Tughlaq Road, Akbar Road, Aurangzeb Lane, Humayun Road, Shahjahan Road and Babar Lane.
He has suggested that the roads should be named after Sikh preacher Guru Gobind Singh, Hindu ruler Maharana Pratap, former President APJ Abdul Kalam, Sanskrit poet Valmiki, former Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and freedom fighter Khudiram Bose.
“It would be appropriate to commemorate the great sons of India and root out the mentality of slavery on the 75th year of the country’s independence,” Gupta said at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
The New Delhi Municipal Council, which is in charge of the civic amenities in central Delhi, has the power to rename roads in the area. Rules of the civic body say that the renaming exercise should take into account history, sentiment and whether a personality needs to be acknowledged in that manner.
However, the rules also state that renaming should be an exception.
Last month, Gupta had sent a list of 40 villages in Delhi with “Mughal-era names” to the Aam Aadmi Party government, urging that they be renamed after freedom fighters and artistes.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, members of several Hindutva organisations held a demonstration near Delhi’s Qutub Minar, demanding that the minaret be renamed “Vishnu Stambh” after the Hindu deity, The Indian Express reported.
Around 1 pm, soon after the demonstrations started, the police detained the protestors who shouted “Jai Shri Ram” while holding saffron flags. BJP leader Jai Bhagwan Goyal told reporters that he had been kept under house arrest since morning, The Indian Express reported.
“We had given a call for reciting the Hanuman Chalisa at the Qutub Minar, demanding that it be declared as Vishnu Stambh since it was made by breaking down 27 temples,” he said.
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