One Aurangzeb over the other!

As much as this blogger may want to keep politicians out of the #stateofdelhi blogs – the political class has the propensity to seep in.

Brexit results or the British PM quitting – none of it concerns Dilliwalahs in any major way but then our CM got on to twitter and made it completely contextual by calling for a Referendum on the status of Delhi. And that compelled this blogger to devote some part of the blog to the politics of Delhi. Dilliwalahs are wondering why wasn’t a Referendum called for the re-run of that odd-even experiment? And if Referendums are a way forward then why not call one to check out on naming options of roads and installations in Delhi. Just a few weeks back the Barapullah elevated road’s name was changed to Banda Bahadhur Road (it is purely coincidental that Punjab elections are round the corner and our man at the helm views Punjab as the next outpost for his party after Delhi). Wish Dilliwalahs were not taken to be so dumb and so naive that they won’t get the intent of such actions that are selective and inconsistent. Sadly all this reeks of a case of how quickly a self-claimed reformist can degenerate into a manipulative, scheming politician.

Coming back to this practice of changing road names – if you happen to go to Prithviraj Road from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road in Lutyens’ Delhi you have to get on to a lane that connects these two arterial roads. Guess the name of this lane? Aurangzeb Lane. Yes! Aurangzeb Lane continues to be called Aurangzeb Lane! So what was so much fuss about? The emperor must be laughing in his grave in Aurangabad for some characters just can’t be written off from history so easily – whether we like them or not?