Taj Mahal was a Shiva Temple, will support Yogi to demolish it: Azam Khan

Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan stirred up a controversy on Thursday after he extended support to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to "demolish" the Taj Mahal. Khan claimed that the 17th century mausoleum was a Shiva Temple.

"Taj Mahal is a Shiva Temple, Yogi Ji and many other people told me this. I am the kind of Muslim who would walk with Yogi Ji and will also get 10-20 thousand other Muslims along to demolish it," Khan said.

“Yogi ji will deal the first blow, while I will follow up with the second one. Why is this symbol of slavery still standing?” Khan was quoted as saying by the ANI.

It was not the first time the SP leader is making shocking comments on the architectural beauty in Agra. In October last, he had said, “Taj Mahal would have been long demolished like the Babri Masjid was had it not been gaining  international attention.”

He even went to on to say that along with the Red Fort, Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Taj Mahal was also a symbol of slavery.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site was in the middle of a storm last year after activists of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), an organisation founded by Adityanath, entered the structure and recited Shiv Chalisa there. 

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Vinay Katiyar had come out in support of the HYV activists, saying there were many signs that show the Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva Temple. 

Sangeet Som, a lawmaker from the ruling party, had called the monument “a blot on Indian culture” that was built by “traitors.”