PRESS STATEMENT on behalf of Citizens For Democracy
As per law, name of Aurangzeb Road cannot be changed
Citizens For Democracy, ‘CFD’ in short, is shocked that the New Delhi Municipal council, NDMC in short, has decided to rename the ‘Aurangzeb Road’ in New Delhi as the ‘Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Road’. The said decision is totally illegal, unjustified arbitrary and against our constitutional ethos. It appears to be guided by not reason and law but by narrow communal consideration.
It is well known that a section in BJP has long been agitating to change the name of Aurangzeb Road to some other names but it each time this proposal has failed.
Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, Minister of State for Home Affairs, made a statement on behalf of the Home Ministry that Aurangzeb Road could not be renamed since the policy is not to rename any road named after a historical figure.
In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on April 21, 2015, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said that the nomenclature of various roads, crossings, streets colonies and parks in the NCT of Delhi is governed by guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India in 1975 (No. 13022/34/74- Delhi of 27.9.1975).
These guidelines make it clear, he said, that “changes in the names of streets/roads etc. not only create confusion for the Post Offices and the public, but also deprive the people of a sense of history. Therefore, it was decided that the name of existing streets/road etc., should not be changed.”
Chaudhary gave his answer in reply to a question by BJP MP Om Birka from Kota, Rajasthan, who wanted to know the government’s criteria for naming roads and streets in the Capital and whether the government was considering any proposals for “renaming the various roads of the NCT of Delhi which are named after foreign invaders” with the names of “revolutionaries, freedom fighters and martyrs of the country.”
The minister said it was government policy that only new streets or existing streets which were “without specific names” could be named after eminent local, national or international personalities as a way of honouring them.
Thus as per guidelines of the government, the name of the ‘Aurangzeb Road’ cannot be changed. The memory of Dr.Abdul Kalam could have been better served by building a scientific or educational institute under his name.
Last December, the Modi government told the Lok Sabha that the NDMC had indeed received a letter from the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi in October 2014 requesting that the name of “Aurangzeb” Road be changed to “Guru Gobind Singh Road” and also a request from the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) for the road to named after Guru Tegh Bahadur Road.
“The name of the said road was not changed by the NDMC in light of the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” Minister of State Chaudhary said on December 17, 2014.
Apart from the government replies in Parliament, the NDMC itself has repeatedly turned down requests for changing the name of roads in Delhi citing the rules. In this 2007 resolution, for example, the Council stressed two key guidelines
- The names of existing streets should not be changed.
- Names which are a part of history may not be altered.
We therefore demand that NDMC should immediately withdraw that decision and not to take any step for implementing the said decision.
A notice in this respect has already been sent to the concerned authorities on behalf of the Citizens For Democracy (CFD).
Kuldip Nayar Justice Rajindar Sachar (Retd.) N.D.Pancholi
President, C.F.D. Former President PUCL Secretary, C.F.D. (9811099532)
August 29, 2015 at 6:52 pm
Aurangzeb was a TRUE COMMUNSLIST who TERRORIZED Hindus and killed Sikh Sahibzade and his own brothers and imprisoned his own father Shah Jahan. He was the great grandson of INVADER Babur. Aurangzeb forcibly converted Hindus to Islam in Kashmir
August 29, 2015 at 8:13 pm
Hope you know the difference between law and policy.
August 29, 2015 at 8:34 pm
Hats off ! Sigh of relief !welldone
August 29, 2015 at 10:48 pm
Hats off for what?
August 31, 2015 at 10:46 am
simply madarchod. arabi najayaj avlade pardesi randwe.
August 29, 2015 at 9:19 pm
If it is illegal why dont these people go to court on behalf of aurangazeb.. ?
August 29, 2015 at 10:01 pm
How did u allow changing the name of Connaught place to Rajiv chowk? It was not illegalm
August 29, 2015 at 10:05 pm
Aurangazeb beheaded Sikh Guru and was far advanced in killing Hindus in the most cruel fashions. Pakistni ISI agents Rajinder sachar should be hanged for supporting the barbarian acts of Aurangazeb.
August 30, 2015 at 12:50 am
M/s Rajiv Gandhi also get killed Sikh Indians ! Mr. Narender Modi get killed the Muslim Indians !
August 30, 2015 at 5:40 am
Reaction by Kuldip Ali Nayar & Abu Rajender Sachar is natural – when their biological father is insulted like this – they had to respond !
August 29, 2015 at 11:33 pm
hello CFD what a bastard argument …….what about people’s majority, the law is made for the people, by the peoples, but when peoples not want it any more and they changed it , simple
August 30, 2015 at 4:26 am
Dear Citizens for Democracy, please go f**k yourself.
August 30, 2015 at 7:27 am
Ignore the corrupt scumbags Nayyar,Sachar,Pancholl.They cannot do anything.I dint know these morons are still alive.Times are changing. Its a different India. Assertive developing world power India. Its not colonial and Mughal slave India. These retired morons can shove their opinions in their ass.
August 30, 2015 at 7:41 am
And we still have to live with traitors and bigots like you ,
August 30, 2015 at 10:43 am
80 million Hindus have been slaughtered in India due to Islam. Why should Hindus honour a butcher of Hindus? Dhimmis like you are truly a cancer on society. Suicidal, anti-nationalistic and communist traitors. Go live in an Islamic or communist hell-hole and leave India.
August 30, 2015 at 10:53 pm
Well said, these traitors will never change. K Nayar’s parents came to India from Porkistan in 1947 leaving everything there due to Islamists atrocities. Still this sutiya takes their side every time.
August 30, 2015 at 11:58 am
He was the one of the greatest king of Indian History, Changing the name is nothing but the sick mentality & foolish act.
August 30, 2015 at 10:46 pm
Having this ‘great king’ named on a street in India is like having a street named “Hitler Road’ in Jewish country of Israel. Thank God we have the BJP in India so that dhimmis and Muslim supremacists like you cannot honour mass murderers of Hindus. Go live in an Islamic hellhole you parasite.
August 30, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Jaychands are still alive. But history respect Pruthviraj Chauhan not Ghori. Same way, nobody except these morons respects this butcher of Hindus. Their ” Rudali ” has already started from various corners of India, Let them cry.
August 31, 2015 at 1:36 am
Congress party and its leaders [both past and present] messed up everything they touched. They promised to create Swaraj in a year which was in the 1920s. It never happened. They wished to give us a United India. What did we get? A balkanised India. A moth-eaten India. A headless India.
They had/have no sense of history. Other people keep the memory alive of those leaders who have made sacrifices for the nation. It is beyond my comprehension why we have places named after foreign invaders and tyrants. Why are we extolling them and putting them on a pedestal?
Aurangzeb is named a Saint in Pakistan. To us he was the worst ruler. He targeted Kashmiris and converted them wholesale. He decapitated Guru Teg Bahadur in Chandni Chowk, Delhi. Naming some place after his name means we are celebrating his deeds. It is a loony act.
If some stupid person has passed some act, so what. We have amended our constitution umpteen time. Where is the problem rescinding some stupid act.
I hate another road in Delhi. It is Nicholson Road who was the tyrant at time of our First War of Independence. Nobody has raised any objection to that. In my opinion nothing should be named after any foreigner. We should celebrate only indigenous people. By celebrating foreigners we are celebrating our servitude and humiliation. Where is the honour in that?
Jai Hind