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Karni Sena digs out a fresh row, puts question mark on Akbar’s birth date
It’s the season of revisiting history in Rajasthan. After manhandling film maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali at the shoot of ‘Padmavati’ at Jaipur’s Jaigarh Fort, Shri Rajput Karni Sena has now questioned Akbar’s paternity on the basis of the number of days Humayun was away from his wife, Hameeda Bano
JAIPUR: It’s the season of revisiting history in Rajasthan. After manhandling film maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali at the shoot of ‘Padmavati’ at Jaipur’s Jaigarh Fort, Shri Rajput Karni Sena has now questioned Akbar’s paternity on the basis of the number of days Humayun was away from his wife, Hameeda Bano.
“Humayun had been away from her for 10 months and four days when Akbar was born at Amarkot in Sindh province of Pakistan on October 15, 1542,” Sena’s founder Lokendra Singh Kalwi said.
Kalwi with four other fellow Rajputs had formed Karni Sena in September 2006.
Kalwi said it wasn’t impossible for women to deliver a baby 10 months after conception “but it is rare”. When historical distortions were being set right, he demanded, it was high time that Akbar’s paternity was also “examined”.
The latest ‘churning’ of history comes close in the heels of BJP MLA from Jaipur’s Kishanpol constituency, Mohal Lal Gupta, demanding at a syndicate meet of University of Rajasthan to “correct history books” to say that Maharana Pratap defeated Akbar’s army at Haldighati. The university’s board of studies and academic councils are examining evidences cited by Gupta for his claims.
In its 10th year, the Sena is marveling at “moral victory” after Bhansali assured in writing that he will not show Marwar queen Padmini as a lover of Allauddin Khilji even in a dream sequence in Padmavati. The film has already generated a lot of debate about the existence of Padmini or Padmavati in Chittorgarh.
Kalwi said the mirror sequence that is taught in history textbooks could not be true because, he claims, glass was invented in France in 1294 and the mirror episode of Chittorgarh is circa 1302. “We don’t know how mirrors were developed from glass but I’m sure the invention could not have travelled from France to Chittorgarh in just eight years.”
The Karni Sena patriarch said he will take a delegation to the information and broadcasting minister in Delhi soon to demand pre-censor of films based on historical events. “Films go to the Censor Board after they are made but for historical films, we want them to go through a pre-production check with groups about whom the films are being made,” he said.
