Hindu Mahasabha demands ban on Sufi saint's 'urs' at Taj Mahal

Mahasabha president Meera Rathore claims that no religious event can be organised inside the Taj Mahal.

Lucknow: Saffron outfits have demanded a ban on the forthcoming three-day-long ‘urs’ (commemorating the death anniversary of a Sufi saint at his shrine) at the Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra town.

Workers of the All India Hindu Mahasabha on Tuesday staged a demonstration in front of the monument of love in protest against the proposed event beginning from Thursday and handed over a memorandum to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) demanding a ban on the same.

The Mahasabha president Meera Rathore said that no religious event could be organised inside the Taj Mahal. ‘’The Supreme Court has only allowed namaz in the premises by the local residents on Fridays,’’ she said.

‘’There is no mention of urs inside the Taj Mahal complex in history,’’ she added.

Rathore warned that the saffron activists would organise ‘Shiv Tandav’ (Lord Shiva’s powerful, cosmic dance of creation and destruction symbolizing universal cycles) inside the Taj Mahal if the ‘urs’ was allowed to be held.

A case seeking a ban on the ‘urs’ was pending in the district court in Agra. The case would come up for hearing on Thursday.

Alarmed by the protest, the district administration has tightened security arrangements in and around the monument. Security personnel in strength had been deployed in Tajganj and adjoining areas as a precautionary measure.

The saffron outfits claim that the Taj Mahal was a Shiva temple, which was partially demolished by the Mughal emperor Shahjahan. They call it ‘Tejo Mahal’.