Goel, along with some supporters, went to the high-security Lutyens’ Delhi where the signboard is placed.

A day before the Ram Temple bhumi pujan in Ayodhya, former Union minister Vijay Goel Tuesday defaced the Babar Road signboard in Central Delhi, demanding that it be called 5 August Marg instead.

Goel, the former Delhi BJP president, said he has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to rename the road near Bengali Market.

“Babar was an invader who attacked Hindustan and demolished Ram Mandir. The PM is going to perform a groundbreaking ceremony for a grand temple in Ayodhya tomorrow. At such a time, it will be an appropriate move to rename Babar Road as 5 August Marg,” Goel said.

Goel, along with some supporters, went to the high-security Lutyens’ Delhi where the signboard is placed. He pasted a black cross over it, and underneath put a new poster which read 5 August Road. Goel also said he would start writing 5 August Marg on his letterhead and all his correspondence henceforth, and launch a signature campaign. Last year, the Hindu Sena had blackened the Babar Road signboard in Bengali Market.

TN Meena, senior engineer (roads) at New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), said, “We got to know that some group had pasted a sticker on Babar Road board, but we have removed it now.”