It is fitting tribute to Shri APJ Abdul Kalam who passed away recently; to rename infamous Aurangzeb Road to famous APJ Kalam Road. Kalam was secular, decent and honest to a fault person, true Indian at heart and in action. His name replacing that of brutal draconian fanatic dictator who destroyed good relations between Hindus and Muslims built up by one of his predecessors Emperor Akbar, one of few cultured and benevolent Moghul ruler, as most ruled India with iron feast only possible with the cooperation of fiduciary conniving Rajput kings who hated their own kith and kin like lustrous Maharana Pratap more than brutal impenitent Moghuls.
Although Aurangzeb destroyed many famous Hindu temples, like Kashi Visvanathan and Grand Temple in front of Maharana’s Mansion at Udaipur, he committed worse atrocities against his own family, butchering his elder brother and all male members of his immediate family, imprisoning his cultured, gentle father Shah Jahan who rotted away in Fort Prison until his death. Some patriotic Sikhs would have liked to rename it “Guru Teg Bahadur Road, (GTBR) fitting tribute to great patriot, as he was beheaded by Aurangzeb after long and torturous impressment for refusing to convert and paid with his life. In India communal politics overrides common-sense. Renaming it GTBR would have played in the hands of mischief making Congress. Popularity of APJ is so enormous that even Congress could not dare to oppose such honour to APJ.
Bhupendra M. Gandhi
By email
