Amid controversy over Sangeet Som's remark on Taj Mahal, the BJP Rajya Sabha member Vinay Katiyar has claimed that Shah Jahan had destroyed a Hindu temple to build the monument.
Katiyar made the remarks even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made an attempt to douse the fire.
“Taj Mahal is a Hindu temple that was known as Tejomahal. It was a Shiva temple that was demolished by Shah Jahan to build the Taj Mahal,” Katiyar told CNN-News18.
He further said that he was not asking for the Taj Mahal to be destroyed.
On Monday, Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Sangeet Som had questioned the 17th-century architectural marvel place in India's heritage and said history would be rewritten to erase Mughal emperors from it.
Som, the party's legislator from Sardhana, also distorted history to say it was built by an emperor who had imprisoned his father and targeted Hindus.
Meanwhile, Yogi Adityanath has announced that he would visit Agra next week to review tourism schemes and said that the Taj Mahal was a historical monument regardless of the emperor who had built it.
"It is immaterial as to who and how the Taj Mahal was built... It was made by the sweat and blood of Bharat Mata's sons. It is famous the world over for its architecture... it is a historical monument and its protection and further development for tourism is the responsibility of the government," he said.
Union Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam also said that the Taj Mahal was 'India's pride' and a core of tourism circuit.
