UP govt wants to erase history of Mughals by changing names of places: Farooq Abdullah
The NCP chief said that Mughals stayed in India for hundreds of years and are also buried here.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of erasing the history of Mughals.
"They want to erase the history of Mughals, that won't happen. They (Mughals) stayed here for hundreds of years and are also buried here," Abdullah said, according to PTI.
The National Conference chief was responding to a question on the controversy over Samajwadi Party MLA remarks on Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to change the names of cities and historical structures.
A political storm erupted after Maharashtra Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi praised Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, drawing sharp reactions from the ruling BJP.
Azmi had called Aurangzeb a “good administrator” and claimed India had thrived under his rule. He was suspended from the Maharashtra assembly after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandrakant Patil moved a resolution.
In Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had criticised the Samajwadi Party for maintaining silence over the controversy and without naming Azmi, demanded that he should be expelled from the party.
"Send him to UP; we know how to deal with such people. It won’t take us long,” Yogi Adityanath had said.
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Adityanath accused the SP of not respecting India’s cultural heritage and deviating from the principles of its ideological founder Dr Ram Manohar Lohia.
“Lohia would identify Lord Ram, Lord Krisnha and Lord Shiva as the pillars of India’s unity. But today the SP is glorifying a ruler like Aurangzeb.”
Referring to historical accounts, the CM pointed out that Aurangzeb imprisoned his father Shahjahan in Agra Fort and denied him even water.
He had advised SP members to visit the library in Patna to read Shahjahan’s biography, which, according to him, records that the Mughal once told Aurangzeb: “A Hindu is better than you, as they serve their parents while alive and perform rituals to honour them after death.”
