Amid the row over NCERT reportedly dropping certain chapters on Mughal history from class 12 textbooks, Assam BJP MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi has sparked a controversy by allegedly seeking the demolition of Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar. In videos being widely circulated online, Kurmi purportedly demands an investigation into whether Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ‘truly loved’ his wife Mumtaz.
He also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to build temples to replace the two Mughal-era monuments. The Mariani MLA also announced that he is willing to donate a year’s salary for the temple construction.
“I urge the Prime Minister to immediately demolish the Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar. In place of these two monuments, the world's most beautiful temples should be built. The architecture of those two temples should be such that no other monuments could be even closer to them.”
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Questioning why the 17th century king married three more times after the death of Mumtaz, he claimed that one of the seven wonders of the world was built with the wealth of Hindu royalty.
{{/usCountry}}Questioning why the 17th century king married three more times after the death of Mumtaz, he claimed that one of the seven wonders of the world was built with the wealth of Hindu royalty.
{{/usCountry}}"In the year 1526, Mughals came to India and later made Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan built Taj Mahal with the money taken from Hindu Kings and that was our money. He made Taj Mahal for his fourth wife. He married seven wives and Mumtaz was the fourth wife. If he loved Mumtaaz so much, then why did he marry more wives later," said Kurmi.
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Speaking to news agency ANI, the four-time MLA asserted that Taj Mahal, widely considered as a testimony to love, is ‘not a symbol of love’.
NCERT row
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been receiving criticism from the opposition leaders over the alleged removal of references to ‘dislike of Hindu extremists for Mahatma Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity’ and banning of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from the new Class 12 political science and history textbooks. The Indian Express was the first to report the deletions from the revised textbooks published for the academic year 2023-24. HT had reported that the NCERT dropped topics related to ‘Kings and Chronicles: The Mughal courts’ from the history book ‘Themes of Indian History-Part II’.
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NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said the changes were made based on the recommendations of subject experts and not for any political considerations, but he admitted that the details of the excluded portions may have, by oversight, not been mentioned in a list of rationalised topics released last June.