Demolish Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar, build temple; Assam BJP MLA tells PM Modi

The BJP MLA further said that he would pay a year of his MLA salary for the construction of the temples

In an explosive statement, Assam BJP MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demolish Mughal monuments Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar and build the world’s most beautiful and biggest temples in their place.

“I request Prime Minister to demolish the Taj Mahal, demolish the Qutub Minar and build the most beautiful and biggest temple in the world at their sites,” MLA Kurmi said reacting to controversy surrounding National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)’s decision to drop chapters on Mughal history giving the whole discourse a new twist and triggering another round of controversy.

The MLA further said that he would pay his one year MLA’s salary to help build the temples.

The Taj Mahal, undoubtedly India’s most popular tourist destination, has been visited by the likes of former US President Donald Trump, Princess Diana, Prince Harry and wife Kate Middleton, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and Will Smith, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, several heads of states and eminent personalities from across the globe, the list is long.

The 17th century monument built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the loving memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is built on the banks of the Yamuna in Agra.
The Qutub Minar is a 12th century monument built by Qutub-uddin-Aibak of the Slave Dynasty, is another popular tourist spot in Delhi.

This is not the first time that people have asked for the Taj to be demolished. In May last year (2022), BJP MP Diya Kumari claimed that the land on which Taj Mahal is built belonged to the Jaipur royal family and that the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had “occupied” it.

Right-wing Hindu organisations and revisionist history writers have claimed in the past that Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple called Tejo Mahalaya. Historians have, however, not found merit in these claims.

As far as controversies surrounding the Qutub Minar, one of the tallest monuments in India is concerned, a former ASI official has claimed that hat the Qutub Minar was not built by Qutb al-Din Aibak but was actually built by Raja Vikramaditya to study the direction of the Sun.

A plea was filed in a Delhi court saying that Kunwar Mahender Dhwaj Pratap Singh, an heir of the United Province of Agra and the owner of lands in several cities in and around Delhi, owned the property of Qutub Minar. The Quwwat-Ul-Islam Masjid situated within the Qutub Minar complex in Mehrauli, Delhi was built in place of a temple complex. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) opposed the plea and the Court quashed the plea.

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