Assam: Complaint Filed Against BJP MLA Over Demand to Demolish Taj Mahal
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: While the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has remained silent, a police complaint was lodged by a local lawyer at a local police station in Assam against a BJP state legislator’s demand for the demolition of the Taj Mahal.
On April 4, Mariani BJP MLA, Rupjyoti Kurmi, told reporters that he had recommended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demolish the monument in order to build temples.
The local media organisation Pratidin Time reported that an advocate, Taijuddin Ahmad, sent a complaint to the Latashil police station.
“We are aware that the Taj Mahal is run by the Central government, which protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological sites and remains act, 1958. Moreover, the UNESCO has recognised the Taj Mahal in the year 1983 as World Heritage Site. The aforesaid statement of Mr Kurmi is very communal and anti-national which may create social unrest and may cause disturbance of communal harmony at any moment,” wrote Ahmad in the letter to the police station in-charge, published by Pratidin Time.
There has been no statements from either the state or central leadership of BJP condemning Kurmi’s remarks.
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The controversy came to light after a video surfaced in which Kurmi was seen calling for building temples at Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar – and offered to donate a year’s salary towards such a project.
Even after the matter became well-known, the MLA reiterated his statement. “Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in memory of his fourth wife Mumtaz,” he said. “If he loved Mumtaz, then why did he marry three more times after the death of Mumtaz.”
The remarks made by Kurmi were made in the context of a larger controversy regarding the removal of a specific chapter on Mughal history from the Class 12 History textbook published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). This decision to remove the chapter has been met with considerable criticism from various quarters, as it is seen by many as an attempt to rewrite history and undermine the significance of the Mughal era in Indian history.
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