New Delhi: After almost five decades, the Congress has shifted its operations to 9A, Kotla Road, from Type VII bungalow on Akbar Road in Lutyens’ Delhi that had become synonymous with the 139-year-old party.
Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the new five-storey headquarters, Indira Bhawan, on Wednesday. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, MP Rahul Gandhi and other prominent leaders of the party were present.
This comes weeks before the national capital goes to the assembly polls on February 5. The Congress had earlier planned to inaugurate the new building on December 28 but it had to be deferred due to the demise of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
BACKDOOR AS MAIN ENTRANCE
The new Congress headquarters is barely a kilometre from the BJP’s national headquarters on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg. However, the grand old party has opted to make its backdoor on Kotla Marg parallel to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, the main entrance to the new building, perhaps to avoid any association with the RSS ideologue and forerunner of the BJP.
Its immediate neighbour, Aam Aadmi Party, has its headquarters at 206, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg. The Kotla Marg is named after the iconic 14th-Century fort, Firoz Shah Kotla, built by Delhi Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq.
In a column in India today in 2022, political commentator and author Rasheed Kidwai wrote that new Congress headquarters, designed under the supervision of Ahmed Patel and Motilal Vora, saw them use their backroom influence to establish the Kotla Road entrance as its main gate.
LIBRARY NAMED AFTER MANMOHAN SINGH
Kharge announced that the library in the building will be named after former Prime Minister. “I pay tribute to Dr. Manmohan Singh’s historical contribution and announce that the library in this new headquarters will be named Dr. Manmohan Singh Library,” he said while addressing party workers after inauguration of the Congress HQ. The announcement came amidst the BJP’s call to name the new party headquarters after Manmohan Singh.
Earlier in the day, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya shared a video in which posters were seen outside the place, calling to name it ‘Sardar Manmohan Singh Bhavan’, to honour the former Prime Minister. “Rahul Gandhi once referred to him as a mentor, yet he chose to travel to Vietnam for the New Year while the nation mourned his passing. Furthermore, no Congress representative came forward to collect his ashes. Naming the building after him would be a meaningful gesture to honor his legacy and address the disrespect he endured during his lifetime, particularly from the Gandhi family. It is now up to them to make the right decision,” he wrote on X.
Echoing his sentiments, BJP’s national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla, who also wrote on X, “Congress did dirty politics on Samman of Dr Manmohan Singh but now despite huge demand to name their new headquarters after Dr Singh- they ignored him and named it after Indira Gandhi.”
“Shameful mindset to abuse and insult Sikh community and always do Family First . Narsimha Rao ji , Ambedkar ji, Pranab Da & all stalwarts insulted by Congress,” he added.
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