NEW DELHI -- Delhi's famous Race Course Road, home to India's prime ministers since Rajiv Gandhi moved there in 1984, will now be called Lok Kalyan Marg.
The announcement came after a meeting of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) on Wednesday. "There were some suggestions in NDMC meeting, but consensus was that Race Course Road be now called Lok Kalyan Marg," Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told the media.
An earlier suggestion was "Ekatma Marg," proposed by Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi, who said that RCR "does not match with Indian culture."
Ekatma Manavvad or Integral Humanism is a philosophy associated with Deendayal Upadhyaya, chief of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh from 1953 to 1968, who rejected both communism and capitalism.
This is the first name change of a road in Delhi since Aurangzeb Road was replaced with Dr APJ Adbul Kalam Road, last year. That suggestion had come from BJP's Mahesh Girri, and it was supported by the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government. While many welcomed the change from the name Aurangzeb, the least popular of the six Great Mughals, others characterized it as meddling with history.
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