Is Taj Mahal 'history'? BJP legislator Sangeet Som courts controversy as he talks of 'good' history

Sangeet Som, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) legislator from Sardhana, kicked up a controversy when he questioned the importance of the Taj Mahal in India’s history.

Speaking at Sisoli village after inaugurating the statue of Anangpal Singh Tomar, an 8th-century king in Meerut on Sunday, Som said that some people were deeply upset when the Uttar Pradesh government dropped Taj Mahal from its list of important places of tourism.

Referring to the iconic monument Som said –

“Many people were pained to see that the Taj Mahal was removed from the list of tourist destinations. Is this history that the person who built the Taj Mahal imprisoned his father? Do you call it a history?”

Som had his facts wrong as the Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan as a monument of love for his wife Mumtaz and not by his son Aurangzeb who imprisoned his father.

Slammed with ample criticism, the state government issued a clarification that the Taj Mahal would be included in another list of tourist places which will be released soon. The first list, it said, pertained to only religious places.

In a press statement issued later, the government had said that tourism projects worth Rs 370 crores were proposed under which schemes worth Rs 156 crores were meant for the Taj Mahal and its adjoining areas.

Som said that Babar, Akbar and Aurangzeb had carried out large-scale destruction in the country so how could they be “great”.

“Children will be taught good history and I can assure you it is going to change,” he said, declaring that names of the three Mughal emperors would be removed from the pages of history as they were traitors.

Som, who is not new to controversy, said that invaders have been glorified in India’s history and blamed the Congress party for it. He is notorious for giving inflammatory speeches and was among those charged with instigating communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in 2013. Sixty people were killed in those riots.

Asserting that the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya and a Krishna temple at Mathura cannot be stopped, Som said that the BJP government would rewrite history books to include the names many Hindu kings who do not find any mention.

Taj Mahal has been in BJP’s crosshairs for a long time now and the UP government’s decision to remove it from the first list seemed a deliberate move to gauge the public sentiment. The party’s affiliates have been claiming that the mausoleum was, in fact, Tejo Mahalay, a temple of Shiva built by a Hindu king.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been appreciative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to present a copy of the Bhagwad Gita or the Ramayana as a gift to foreign dignitaries instead of a replica of the Taj Mahal or any other minaret as the monument had nothing to do with India’s Hindu culture.

“It does not reflect our culture,” Adityanath said recently.

In an interview to a TV channel, Adityanath said that he was open to the idea of renaming Taj Mahal, a UNESCO heritage site, as Tejo Mahalay but after a discussion on the issue.

During the UP Assembly elections, Mohd Azam Khan had claimed that Taj Mahal was a property of the Sunni Waqf and should be handed over to the waqf. His claim was rejected.

Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangimahali and Maulana Yasoob Abbas criticised Som for his controversial statement. Calling it a big joke, Khalid Rashid said that such comments were aimed at vitiating the communal atmosphere and dividing the society.

Yasoob said that such statements were dangerous for the country.

Edited by Jhinuk Sen