UP minister Baldev Singh Aulakh assails Azam over Taj remarks

 Uttar Pradesh Minority Welfare Minister Baldev Singh Aulakh today lashed out at Azam Khan for saying the Taj Mahal will be "destroyed" like Babri Masjid "was demolished with dynamite", and accused him of making such statements to create tension between two communities.

The minister said that SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and party chief Akhilesh Yadav should clarify as to why Khan made such remarks.

"On what basis Khan has very confidently stated that the Taj Mahal will be blown up when Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has emphatically termed the Taj a national monument, our pride and heritage," the Bilaspur MLA asked.

Former minister Khan had on October 18 said, "It is almost definite that the Taj Mahal will be destroyed because whatever (historian) PN Oak wrote in his book, all of that is being implemented by the fascist forces of India and the RSS."

Oak had written "there stood a Shiva temple in Ayodhya. If the Babri Masjid could be destroyed because people believe there stood a temple instead, then no place of worship in India is safe", Khan had said.

"The kind of atmosphere which was there before the Babri Masjid was demolished with dynamite was created long before the actual event took place. There was a high court and a supreme court stay and the then chief minister had submitted an affidavit to the court. Despite all this, Babri Masjid was demolished with dynamite," he had said.

The verbal exchange of tirade between Aulakh and Khan had begun in May when the BJP leader had expressed his resolve to hold a Janta Darbar in a guest house on the premises of the Jauhar University, which is owned by the SP leader.

Khan had responded by threatening to blow up the guest house if anyone tried to lay a hand on it.

"It was Azam Khan who had threatened to blow up the guest house of his own Jauhar University but had backtracked saying he did not posses dynamite. What Khan says and what he does remain contradictory," Aulakh told PTI over phone.

Aulakh said Khan should present evidence if says that a conspiracy was being hatched to "destroy" the Taj.

He said the former minister was making such remarks to create tensions between two communities to regain lost power.