The ethereal Taj. This is not the first time that there has been controversy related to the Taj Mahal, the 17th century mausoleum built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Earlier, the government was dragged into a bizarre row over whether the Taj Mahal should be converted into a Hindu temple. In 2015, a group of lawyers had gone to court, claiming that the monument was an ancient Shiva temple. Now with an Yogi as CM, the Uttar Pradesh government wants to replace the ethereal Taj Mahal with Ram and Shivaji as part of Indian history for want of displaying anything better.
Flaying BJP leader Sangeet Som’s remark that Taj Mahal was built by traitors, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday wondered if Prime Minister Narendra Modi would stop hoisting the national flag over the Red Fort.
The Hyderabad MP said it was very unfortunate and shameful that a legislator who had taken the oath on the constitution was speaking out of arrogance and ignorance.
“If what he says is true, then why is Mr Modi going to Red Fort and hoisting national flag because Red Fort was also built by traitors,” Owaisi told reporters.
He also challenged the government to ask Unesco to remove Taj from the list of world heritage sites and ask tourists coming to India to stop visiting the monument.
Owaisi said Modi should also stop hosting foreign dignitaries at Hyderabad House as this too was built by “traitors”.
He said the BJP leaders were raking up such issues to divert people’s attention as their government at the Centre had failed in providing jobs, tackling terrorism, failed in dealing with China and was also facing flak from common man because of demonetization and GST.
Voicing concern over the continuing attacks by “gau rakshaks” or cow vigilantes, he reiterated that Modi’s statement that attacks should stop was a mere lip service.
On plans by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to install a big statue of Sri Ram, he said this was in violation of the Supreme Court judgement that public money should not be used for construction, maintenance or reconstruction of places of worship.
The MP said this was another evidence of the priorities of the UP government. He said instead of installing statues, the government should focus on supplying oxygen and providing basic facilities to government-run hospitals as the lack of the same was resulting in the deaths of hundreds of children.
BJP leader Sangeet Som, known for his inflammatory speeches and accused of instigating the deadly Muzzafarnagar riots in 2013, triggered a fresh row by saying the Taj Mahal, one of India’s top tourist destinations, was built by “invaders” and hence a “blot” on Indian culture and history.
The controversial BJP lawmaker from Sardhana in Meerut also misquoted history by saying that Shah Jahan, who built the 17th century marble mausoleum in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, had jailed his father and wanted to wipe out Hindus from the country.
The remarks by the BJP leader at a rally in Meerut on Sunday came days after the Uttar Pradesh government removed the Taj Mahal — one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage site — from the list of attractions in its tourism booklet.
“Many people were disappointed that the Taj Mahal was removed from the UP tourism booklet. What history are we talking about? Whose history?
“The creator of the Taj Mahal (Shah Jahan) imprisoned his father. He wanted to wipe out all Hindus from India,” he said.
Som wrongly quoted history saying Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan had jailed his father. Shah Jahan never jailed his father Jahangir. In fact, it was Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb — the sixth Mughal king, who dethroned and jailed him inside the Agra Fort.
The 39-year-old politician said making Mughal “invaders” part of Indian history was “unfortunate” and that it would be corrected.
“It’s unfortunate if we have such people in our history. I can guarantee that history will be changed. The Uttar Pradesh government is trying to bring the history back on the right track. The Uttar Pradesh government is trying to bring back the history of Lord Ram, Shivaji.
“I have spoken against the Mughals, Babar, Akbar, Aurangzeb, about their history. They were foreign invaders. We cannot name our roads and buildings after them. What is their contribution,” Som said, denying that he had insulted the Taj Mahal.
The BJP leader is one of the accused persons charged with instigating riots that left over 60 dead and thousands displaced in Muzaffarnagar in 2013, ahead of the 2014 polls. The Justice Vishnu Sahai Commission indicted him in 2015 for allegedly making provocative speeches that triggered the riots.
He was also accused of stoking communal tensions in Dadri after the killing of Mohammed Ikhlaq over the beef controversy.
A video clip of Som’s Taj Mahal speech went viral on Monday, triggering sharp reactions even as he repeated the comments on Monday while talking to TV channels.
However, senior BJP leader Nalin Kohli partly disowned Som’s comments. “That is his individual view. The Taj Mahal is an important part of our history. It is part of Incredible India. What happened in history cannot be erased but at least history can be written and written well.”
Several public figures took to Twitter to express their disapproval of Som’s comment. With more than 30,000 netizens commenting on the issue by Monday evening, #tajmahal became one of the most trending hashtags.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “No more Red Fort speeches on August 15. The PM will address the nation from Nehru Stadium…will fill some hearts with unabashed glee.”
Owasi told CNN News18 that the BJP wanted to play “a Jekyll and Hyde game…to deflect from real issues like governance”.
“Som is reflecting the views of his Prime Minister. Modi too referred to 1,200 years of servitude.”
Journalists Vikram Thapar, and Sidharth Bhatia also mocked the BJP MLA’s comment.
Comedian Tanmay Bhat described the issue of Taj Mahal as irrelevant and said politicians were using it to divide the country.
“Taj Mahal is such a non-issue but politicians will continue to try and divide this country…aur yaha twitter pe hum RW LW khelte rahe hai (and here on twitter, we will keep playing the game of right wing, left wing),” he wrote.
Another comedian Kunal Kamra trolled the statement, saying, “Taj Mahal is built by someone who exploited the country…But can the RSS tell us one thing that they’ve built which could help tourism?”
Athif, whose Twitter handle describes him as an IT Management Professional, wrote, “BJP MLA Sangeet Som purchased land for meat, perhaps beef processing unit in UP, but wants Taj Mahal out of history book! Hypocrisy overloaded.”
“Sangeet Som, not just the Taj Mahal even the Parliament House and Rashtrapati Bhavan were made by traitors. Are you going to close them too,” wrote Twitter user Anoop Chathoth.
Another user pointed out the communal colour of the issue by comparing it with the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid.
“Time to put off a trip to Taj Mahal before it goes full Babri. Don’t have a good feeling about this,” he said.
Music composer Rahul Raj said: “In UP, roads, hospitals, schools, colleges, police, municipal, etc. are in extremely bad shape, but BJP is discussing Taj Mahal. Priorities.”
There were also a few impressed by his remark on the Mughal emperor’s “brutality”, and tweeted in support.
“Agree with Sangeet Som. Taj Mahal is indeed a blot on our values. Its creator annihilated Hindus, looted their temples, amputated labourers,” tweeted Sonam Mahajan whose description calls her a “politically aware Dogra Hindu”.
“Dont agree fully. Construction of Taj Mahal also entailed chopping off limbs of workers. Does that not bother you a single bit,” wrote another user.
After Taj Mahal was removed from the Uttar Pradesh government’s tourism booklet, Pakistani news wire Times of lslamabad had tweeted, “India ignoring Taj Mahal as it reminds them of thousands of years of Muslim rule over India”. (IANS)