Mughals didn’t bring Taj to India in their pockets: Shahnawaz

GORAKHPUR: “As the Taj Mahal was built by Indian labourers, not brought to the country by Mughal emperors in their pockets, there is no question of the Uttar Pradesh government neglecting the monument.”

This is what BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told mediapersons in Gorakhpur on Tuesday, when asked to comment on party MLA Sangeet Som’s controversial description of the Taj as a blot on Indian culture. “The Taj Mahal is a great work by Hindustani artisans whose hands were cut. The beauty of the Taj will be spruced up by CM Yogi Adityanath,” Hussain said.

He was referring to a theory that Mughal emperor Shah Jahan cut off the hands of artisans who worked on the Taj Mahal, so that they wouldn’t be able to build another monument surpassing its beauty. The claim, however, has been rejected by many historians.

Hussain claimed that UP has witnessed many advancements, including a decline in corruption in just six months of BJP rule. “It is our state’s good fortune that it has a CM like Yogiji,” he said.

When asked to comment on Rahul ’s description of GST as the Gabbar Singh Tax, he quipped that the Congress vice-president was still living in the Sholay era. “The Centre’s development agen da will help the BJP sweep the Gujarat polls with three fourths majority, and notch an overwhelming win in the HP assembly polls,” Hussain added. The former Union minister also dubbed allegations of the BJP trying to bribe a Patidar leader in Gujarat as “baseless”. When ask ed about the party’s candidates for the Gorakhpur and Phulpur LS seats, which fell vacant after Adityanath’s elevation to the CM’s post and Keshav Maurya’s appointment as the dy CM, Hussain said their names will be declared at the “right time”.