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Taj Mahal’s name change proposal on agenda, but house adjourned
Shoba Ram Rathore (60), an elected BJP corporator from ward no. 88 (Harjupura, Tajganj) had moved the proposal and it was listed at item no. 4(7) in the list released by secretariat of the house proceedings of the Agra Nagar Nigam on Wednesday
The much talked about proposal moved by a BJP corporator to name Taj Mahal as Tejo Mahalaya, could not be taken up for discussion on Wednesday as the house of Agra Nagar Nigam (ANN) was adjourned for indefinite period after the chaos over some other proposal. The BJP corporator was, however, optimistic that the proposal would be taken up in the next session.
Shoba Ram Rathore (60), an elected BJP corporator from ward no. 88 (Harjupura, Tajganj) had moved the proposal and it was listed at item no. 4(7) in the list released by secretariat of the house proceedings of the Agra Nagar Nigam on Wednesday. The house was adjourned indefinitely by mayor of Agra Naveen Jain amidst sloganeering on some previous proposal.
“The proposal was moved to change the name of Taj Mahal to Tejo Mahalaya which is the actual name of this structure. How can a place of burial be called a ‘mahal’ (palace) which was in fact the property of Raja Jai Singh usurped by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan whose wife’s name was Arjumand Bano and not Mumtaz as wrongly mentioned in the annals of history,” claimed Rathore in his proposal.
“The wife of Shah Jahan died in Burhanpur, 22 years before the creation of Taj Mahal, and a tomb exists there of Arjumand Bano. It is doubtful as to how the body of the deceased wife of the emperor was preserved for over two decades and as such it is all part of fabricated story. It has been denied by known historian PN Oak in his book wherein the veteran historian has claimed that the structure of Taj Mahal is actually a Hindu temple “Tejo-Mahalaya” encroached upon by the Mughal ruler in power and he named it as Taj Mahal,” he said.
“Slogans were raised over some previous proposal and thus my proposal could not be taken up, and the house was adjourned today. Mayor of Agra has assured to list the proposal for the next house session of Nagar Nigam and it would be adopted,” claimed Rathore.
There were activists of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha on the premises of Agra Nagar Nigam to welcome the proposal on Wednesday.
However, there were different opinions on such proposal being viable in elected house of the Nagar Nigam as Taj Mahal is a protected monument under supervision of Archaeological Survey of India, a Central Government body run by Ministry of Culture, and has till date denied to accept the theory of Taj Mahal being a temple.
It is noteworthy that the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court had in the month of May this year, dismissed a petition claiming that Taj Mahal was built after demolishing a temple and the court, taking strict view had asked the petitioner not to make mockery of public interest litigation system. The petitioner, Rajneesh Singh, a BJP worker had sought directive to open what he claimed were 22 locked underground rooms below the main mausoleum having idols of Hindu deities, but the petition failed.
Beside this, a litigation is still on in civil courts of Agra wherein certain lawyers have filed the petition considering Taj Mahal as Tejo Mahalaya and have sought ban on ‘namaz’ being offered at the mosque in the Taj Mahal premises, and also to get the structure declared as Hindu temple as also propagated by various right wing bodies lodging protest at Taj Mahal every now and then.
