Taj Mahal sits on stolen property: BJP leader

Yet another statement that has surfaced on the row over Taj Mahal suggests the mausoleum was built on stolen property, according to International Business Times.

While speaking in the Rajya Sabha (Indian parliament upper house) recently, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy said he had access to the documents that state the white marble monument was built on stolen property.

Swamy’s comments have come a day after a BJP parliamentarian, Vinay Katiyar, said Taj Mahal was originally a Hindu temple hence should be renamed Tejo Mahal, reported NDTV.

Katiyar, who is active in the campaign for Ram temple at the Babri mosque site in Ayodhya, said Taj Mahal was constructed on the ruins of a Shive temple.

Taj Mahal built by traitors, is blot on Indian culture: BJP lawmaker

Mausoleum was removed from Uttar Pradesh’s booklet of tourism earlier in October

However, Swamy said, there is evidence on record that Shah Jahan forced the Raja-Maharajas of Jaipur to sell the land on which Taj Mahal is standing and in return gave them 40 villages, which “is nothing compared to the property’s value”.

Swamy said the documents would soon be made public. But, he added, the BJP had no intention of demolishing the Taj.

They wanted only three temples out of the thousands demolished under the Muslim rule to be restored, he said. “These three, once they are restored, we won’t be concerned about the remaining 40,000.”