Name villages after Milkha, Lata, Rafi: Delhi BJP to govt

On Thursday, Gupta and other Delhi BJP leaders held an event to rename Mohammadpur village to Madhavpuram.

Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Adesh Gupta on Thursday asked chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to change the names of 40 villages, including Hauz Khas and Sheikh Sarai.

Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta.(HT Photo)

In his letter, Gupta also suggested a few names of eminent personalities, such as singers Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi, shehnai maestro Bismillah khan, sportspersons Milkha Singh and Yashpal Sharma, Kargil war martyr Captain Vikram Batra, Delhi police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who lost his life in the Batla House incident, and Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, who died during the Delhi riots in 2020.

Gupta said, “We hope chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will take necessary steps to change the names of villages. We have sent the proposal after consulting village residents. Delhi is no longer ‘mughlon ki sarai’, it is the country’s capital. There should be no symbol of slavery in the city, especially when we are celebrating 75 years of Independence,” said Gupta.

On Thursday, Gupta and other Delhi BJP leaders held an event to rename Mohammadpur village to Madhavpuram. The BJP has put up a plaque at the entry of the village that reads “Welcome to Madhavpuram”.

The other names the BJP said villages could be named after are newspaper publisher Ramnath Goenka and freedom fighters Mangal Pandey and Rani Lakshmi Bai.

The BJP also said that villages should be named after saints Valmiki and Ravidass.

A senior South Delhi Municipal Corporation official said that the civic agencies can only recommend a change in names, but the final decision is taken by the State Naming Authority, which is headed by the lieutenant governor.

A spokesperson of the Delhi government did not respond to requests for comment.