Will Akbar Road be renamed as Maharana Pratap Road?

Minister of State for External Affairs General (Retired) VK Singh on Tuesday wrote to Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs M Venkaiah Naidu seeking the renaming of New Delhi’s Akbar Road as Maharana Pratap Road.

Singh, in his letter, mentioned that Maharana Pratap had played an instrumental role in stopping the might of Mughal king Akbar, and was truly secular and a man of the masses.

“His army was led by a Pathan and he had Bhils, Adivasis, and others, who formed part of his Army,” wrote Singh. He also said that by renaming the road, proper recognition would be given to Maharana Pratap’s valour and his spirit of secularism which makes our country great.

“I do feel that important personalities like Maharana Pratap and Chhatrapati Shivaji deserve greater recognition than they have been given thus far,” Singh wrote in the letter.

The Bharatiya Janata Party had earlier hailed the demand to change the name of ‘Akbar Road’ in Lutyens Delhi to ‘Maharana Pratap Road’ saying that there are a disproportionate number of roads named after Muslim conquers.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that Pratap was a fearless warrior and never bowed down in front any external power and hence to honour the king who made several sacrifices, the name of the road should be changed.

“There is a disproportionate number of roads named after Muslim conquers, about 33 per cent of roads in this Lutyens Delhi alone have Muslim names, so I think Maharana Pratap was the man who fought fearlessly, his cousin who had surrendered to Akbar had come and offered him compromise but he said no compromise, I will prefer to eat chapati made out of grass, therefore I fully support that Akbar Road should be renamed as Maharana Pratap Road,” said Swamy.

Earlier, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealed to VK Singh to make efforts to rename the road after Maharana Pratap.