By Graham Wood | http://realestate.aol.com
Indian Pol Muhammad Azam Khan Says it Should Have Never Been Built
The Taj Mahal is noted on many lists as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, hooking more than 2 million visitors a year and landing on the list of the 50 Most Visited Tourist Attractions in the World. But it should have never been built. So says one prominent Indian politician who sparked a firestorm of controversy recently when he said that if he could, he would have “willingly led a mob” to demolish the world-famous monument.
Muhammad Azam Khan (pictured at left), the urban development minister in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, called the white marble palace a waste of the country’s money. The Taj Mahal was built by emperor Shah Jahan as a shrine to his third wife in the 1600s. “Shah Jahan had no right to spend [millions] from the public coffers on his sweetheart,” Azam Khan was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
Azam Khan told Tehelka, an Indian political magazine, that… “The hard-earned wealth of people is meant only for the people. Shah Jahan committed a grave sin by splurging public money on the highly extravagant projects like the Taj Mahal.”
There may not have been a very good reason for it to be built. But now to keep it there are a few good reasons.
First it has become a world attraction for being an old monument. It has become a source of income too. It has become an Identity of Agra and India around the globe. I do not think it should be demolished.
By demolishing it, does Mr. Muhammad Azam Khan think that millions of rupees spent will be brought back to the “public coffers”? His way of thinking reminds me of the actions of the Taliban back in March 2001, when they blew up the statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan. Perhaps Mr. Khan share the same ideology of the Taliban?
Dear Azam
How can u prove that the Public Money was used and it was not built by Shah Jahan’s own fortune.
If today Bill Gates builds something, 100 years later some Mr. Azam will say the same …….
Muslims are passing through a period of time where “construction” seems to be “not my sort of thing”. So, to do something they find “destruction” an easy option.
Just turn your head left or right demolition squad is busy everywhere.
He does not have the looks of a venomous Mullah but he certainly hisses like one. A thousand species of snakes and mullahs crawl the earth but with one stark difference; not all snakes are poisonous but all Mullahs….
They are the worst creatures under the heaven and all evils stem from their dark faces and evil minds.
He may be inspired by Saudis.
Instead of doing what they should be now: making poor people’s lives better, they are crying about the past: insanity thy name is mullayiat!
If we leave all arguments aside and only look at the Financial cost of building the Taj, then the Minister should remember that the building has earned thousands time over by the money it has brought in the Indian treasury by foreign and internal tourism,trade around the Taj as wellas good will around the world.
This Indian provincial Minister is either a closet Salafi or he is mad as hell.
when tourist visit this place,lot of poor people earn some money to feed the family,this is a source of income for the government too so take care of it instead thinking to demolish
What a wonderful comments of an educated people.Nothing in the world is more dangerous then sincere IGNORANCE and conscientious stupidity!