New Congress HQ At 9 Kotla Road Also Enjoys A Slice Of History

Meanwhile, 7 Jantar Mantar was earlier the headquarters of Janata Dal United and All India Seva Dal, which was founded by Morarji Desai. After the split in the Congress, this was captured by Congress (O)

After being headquartered at 24 Akbar Road in the capital for about half a century, the Congress has shifted to a new five-storey building at 9A Kotla Road. Actually, the eight-room bungalow at 24 Akbar Road was allotted to G. Venkataswamy, a Congress member elected to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, in 1978, a year after Indira Gandhi lost power post-Emergency. After 2014, the hustle and bustle in the Congress headquarters started decreasing. The crowd of leaders and workers had become a thing of the past.

24 Akbar Road was also called 'Burma House' in the 1960s, when it was used as the official residence to the Ambassador of Myanmar (formerly Burma) to India.

Rashid Kidwai has written in his book '24 Akbar Road' that 24 Akbar Road came to be called Burma House on the instructions of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Actually, the relations between Burma's ambassador Daw Khin Kyi and Pandit Nehru were very cordial.

There are 26 bungalows, including privately owned, on Akbar Road. It is said that the country’s most powerful people in the VVIP zone.

There are only a few double-storey bungalows in Lutyens' Zone. Earlier, 20 Akbar Road was also allotted to incumbent speakers of the Lok Sabha like Sardar Hukam Singh, Neelam Sanjeev Reddy, Balram Jakhar, Rabi Ray, Shivraj Patil, PA Sangma, GMC Balayogi, Meira Kumar and Sumitra Mahajan.

The distance between the new Congress headquarters and 7 Jantar Mantar is not much. Before one wonders about the connection between the two landmark locations, one must remember that the Congress headquarters was at 7 Jantar Mantar from 1947 to 1971. Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel used to visit and it was from Indira Gandhi was elected as the Congress president in 1959.

Author Raj Khanna in his popular book 'Before Independence, After Independence' has discussed in detail the meeting held on June 15, 1947, at the Congress headquarters located at 7 Jantar Mantar on the issue of the British government's partition plan. Ram Manohar Lohia has also written about that historic meeting. According to him, 'Acharya Kripalani ji was sitting hunched over in the meeting.'

Meanwhile, 7 Jantar Mantar was earlier the headquarters of Janata Dal United and All India Seva Dal, which was founded by Morarji Desai. After the split in the Congress, this was captured by Congress (O), which later merged with the Janata Party. Even when Congress returned to power in 1980, Indira Gandhi did not claim 7 Jantar Mantar. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has also been running its office from the same address for a long time now. Apparently, many present Congress leaders and workers are unaware of the party’s tryst with the iconic structure, which today is not in a good condition. Around it, protesters from all over the country raise slogans, while the city folk move around impassively towards their destination.

Standing in front of 7 Jantar Mantar Road, makes one feel as if the independence movement is still going on. Some elderly political workers wearing khadi clothes are found standing outside the gate. In their conversation, words like farmers, youth, unemployment, equality, creativity keep propping up again and again. After some time, they head to the south Indian dhaba for having lunch. Meanwhile, 4-A Kotla Lane located near the new headquarters of the Congress has its own share of history.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Sheikh Abdullah was held here as a political prisoner from 1964 to 1968. At that time, there used to be government bungalows on Kotla Road and Kotla Lane. It is said that Abdullah's family friend and former prime minister IK Gujral wanted 4-A Kotla Lane to be developed as a Sheikh Abdullah memorial. But this never happened.

(The author is Delhi-based senior journalist and writer. He is author of Gandhi's Delhi which has brought to the forth many hidden facts about Mahatma Gandhi)