Diya Kumari, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Rajasthan’s Rajsamand, claimed on Wednesday that the site on which the Taj Mahal was built previously belonged to the old Jaipur royal family and was acquired by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
Her comments follow a plea filed in the Allahabad high court, which requested that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) open 20 rooms inside the Taj Mahal to check for the presence of Hindu idols. On May 4, BJP media in-charge of Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya district, Rajneesh Singh, filed the petition.
“We have the documentation indicating the land belonged to the Jaipur family and Shah Jahan acquired it,” said Kumari, who is a member of the erstwhile Jaipur royal family. She also backed Rajneesh Singh, the BJP’s media in-charge for the Ayodhya district, who filed a plea in the Allahabad high court seeking a fact-finding investigation into the Taj Mahal’s past.
“The Taj Mahal has around 20 rooms that are closed and no one is allowed to enter. According to Rajneesh Singh, “these rooms are thought to contain Hindu god icons and scriptures.”
