New Delhi: “Open 22 rooms in Taj Mahal”. With this plea, a BJP leader has approached the Allahabad High Court, the media reported on Monday.
Seeking a probe into the history of the Taj Mahal, Rajneesh Singh, the media in-charge of BJP’s Ayodhya unit, said: “I have demanded that the 22 doors of rooms of the monument, which are closed, should be opened to see the truth, whatever it is.”
The petitioner, on Saturday last week, filed the case in the registry of the Lucknow bench of the High Court, seeking a fact-finding inquiry into the “history” of the Taj Mahal. Once the registry passes it, the case would come up for hearing in the court.
The Archaeological Survey of India protects the Mughal-era monument.
The petitioner also sought to set aside certain provisions of The Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Declaration of National Importance) Act 1951, and The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958, under which the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra Fort, and Itimad-ud-Daulah’s tomb were declared historical monuments.
Singh filed the petition through his lawyers Ram Prakash Shukla and Rudra Vikram Singh.
Several right-wing outfits have claimed in the past the Taj Mahal was a Lord Shiva temple.
(VP)