The iconic Race Course Road of Lutyens Delhi will now be known as Lok Kalyan Marg after a decision taken at a high-level meeting of the New Delhi Municipal Council presided over by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. With this India’s most famous address, that of the Prime Minister, will no longer be 7, Race Course Road and once the notification is issued it would become 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.
In the meeting, Mr Kejriwal proposed to rename the RCR after Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th and last Sikh Guru, but some members were not convinced. “I had proposed renaming of the road after Guru Govind Singh while Ms Lekhi said it should be renamed as Ekatma Marg.
I suggested that the PM should be consulted on this but the Council members decided that on the basis of suggestions received from public, the road should be renamed as Lok Kalyan Marg,” said Mr Kejriwal.
The NDMC also decided to rename the Gurudwara Rakabganj round-about adjacent to the Parliament complex as Guru Gobind Singh Chowk following representations from various Sikh organisations. The change of name of Gurudwara Rakabganj round-about to Guru Gobind Singh Chowk is seen as an effort to woo the Sikh community by both BJP and AAP ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls early next year.
Mr Kerijwal said the decision to rename RCR was taken after reaching consensus among the NDMC members. BJP MP from New Delhi Meenakshi Lekhi, who was seated next to Mr Kejriwal, said there was nothing bigger than Lok Kalyan (public welfare) and everyone was inspired by it. For the decision, Ms Lekhi said, the BJP and Mr Kejriwal decided to rise above politics.
The BJP MP had earlier proposed that the name Race Course Road “does not match with Indian culture”. She had proposed the name “Ekatma Marg” as a tribute to her party’s ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
The BJP pitched for the new name as a middle path after Mr Kejriwal came up with his own suggestion of Guru Gobind Singh Marg.
The change from “7 RCR” to “7 LKM” drew an instant buzz on social media. Former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah took a sly dig at the Mr Modi’s government, saying “thank goodness” the CM of Delhi was included in the decision-making process. “Thank goodness the CM of Delhi is included in the decision that affect the lives of millions of residents of Delhi,” he tweeted. “It’s so good to know that everything is alright with the world & we can focus on the stuff that really matters — renaming roads.”
Complimenting the NDMC for renaming the road, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu tweeted, “It’s a name with message as the PM’s house is situated in that road.”
