Prime Minister Modi gets new address — 7 Lok Kalyan Marg

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 21

Delhi’s Race Course Road housing the Indian Prime Minister’s official residence was today renamed Lok Kalyan Marg after the BJP and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party agreed to a name change proposal at a high-level meeting of the city’s municipal council.

Seated side by side, BJP’s Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Lekhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal gave their nod to call the iconic RCR as Lok Kalyan Marg after a heated debate on Lekhi’s original proposal to name the road “Ekatma Marg” after BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay’s philosophy of “Ekatma Manavvad”.

On the New Delhi Municipal Council’s agenda today was Lehki’s move to call RCR Ekatma Marg but things changed fast after Kejriwal threw a spanner insisting that the road be called after the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

Not the one to blink in the face of Kejriwal’s strong pitch in the wake of 2017 Punjab elections, Lekhi quickly offered a second name for RCR — Lok Kalyan Marg. “Lok Kalyan Marg is a name that will inspire everyone to do better for people and work for universal welfare. It’s a fitting name for a road housing the Indian PM’s residence.”

Faced with a neutral choice, Kejriwal budged and RCR got a new name without the Council having to go undertake voting. Asked why she abandoned the “Ekatma Marg” proposal, Lekhi told The Tribune: “After I proposed Ekatma Marg on which we could have got an approval on account of numbers being on our side, I got calls from supporters saying Lok Kalyan Marg would be a better name. I agreed to go along with the people’s suggestion.”

The NDMC meeting witnessed an interesting debate today between Lekhi and Kejriwal after the latter proposed the name, Guru Gobind Marg for RCR. It turned out during discussions that Delhi already has a road dedicated to Guru Gobind Singh and two roads in the city cannot have a common name.