Taj beautiful but not a place of worship, says UP minister

AGRA:Uttar Pradesh minister for culture Laxmi Narain Chaudhary on Sunday said Taj Mahal can at best be a beautiful building but not a place of worship.

“Taj Mahal is the pride of nation being a beautiful building known all over world but is not a place of ‘ibadat’ (worship),” said Chaudhary who had earlier justified the exclusion of Taj Mahal from the tourism department’s booklet. Prayers are offered at the Taj Mahal on Fridays when it remains closed to the public.

The minister was speaking in Mathura, his home district. He said there would be a total ban on the sale of liquor and eggs in Barsana, the village known as the birthplace of Radha, the consort of Lord Krishna.

Amidst the raging controversy over the Taj, the culture minister made this statement on the day when deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma said in Agra that despite being best revenue earner for tourism, the focus cannot remain confined to it.

The Taj Mahal was in the midst of a controversy after a recent statement by BJP leader Sangeet Som, an MLA from Sardhana near Meerut. Som had described it as a blot.

Sharma said the controversy over the Taj Mahal was a ‘closed chapter’ after chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s statement describing the Taj as the outcome of hard work by Indian artisans. Adityanath is scheduled to visit Agra on October 26.