Reacting to BJP leader Sangeet Som’s comments that Taj Mahal belonged to traitors and it should be demolished, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan on Tuesday said that if these monuments reminds us of traitors then we should demolish these.
Azam said that if Taj Mahal reminds us of traitors then we should also demolish Rashtrapati Bhawan, Qutub Minar and Lal Qila.
SP leader said that he was always of the view that we should obliterate all the things which reminds us of the yesterday's rule.
“I am always of the view that we should obliterate all the things which reminds us of the yesterday's rule. Why only Taj Mahal, we should also demolish Rashtrapati Bhawan, Qutub Minar and Lal Qila as they all remind us of days of slavery,” said Khan.
Azam said that if these monuments reminds us of traitors then we should demolish these.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that it does not matter who built it and for what reason; it was built by blood and sweat of Indian labourers.
Earlier on Sunday, placing the Taj Mahal in the crosschairs of another controversy, BJP MLA Sangeet Som questioned the 17th century architectural marvel’s place in India’s heritage and said history would be rewritten to erase Mughal emperors from it.
Som’s comments during a visit to Meerut district prompted an angry response from All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi who asked if the government would tell tourists not to visit the monument.
The BJP stepped into the row with party spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao describing Muslim rule in India as “barbaric and a period of incomparable intolerance” while asserting that its members could hold any opinion they want on specific monuments.
Som, the party’s legislator from Sardhana, also distorted history to say it was built by an emperor who had imprisoned his father and targeted Hindus.
With PTI inputs