Does BJP Want to Erase Mughal History? On Oppn's Charge of 'Rewriting' Past, Amit Shah Says This

Union Minister Amit Shah dismissed allegations that Bharatiya Janata Party has been erasing Mughal history and changing names of important cities and places associated with Mughals. The minister said that decisions, which were taken by the Modi-led government were “well-thought” and were within their “statutory rights”.

Union Minister Amit Shah was spoke about the issue during an interview with news agency ANI. Defending the party’s actions, Shah, however, mentioned that BJP does not want to remove anybody’s contribution to history.

The Home Minister responded to allegations that BJP is attempting to “rewrite the country’s history” in which the BJP-ruled states have renamed or are planning to rename cities whose names are associated with Mughal history, reported the news agency.

“The contribution of no one should be removed, neither do we want to remove them. But if someone wants to establish the tradition of the country then no one should have any objection,” Shah was quoted as saying to ANI.

“We have not changed the name of even a single city which previously did not have an old name. Our governments have taken well-thought out decisions. Every government has its statutory rights,” Shah told the agency.

A few days back, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sangam Lal Gupta had urged Amit Shah to rename UP’s capital city Lucknow to “Lakhanpur or Laxmanpur”.

The MP had said Lucknow was earlier named Lakhanpur and Laxmanpur in the Treta Yug and that Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula had renamed it to Lucknow.

‘Great Loss To India,’ Says Amit Shah

When Shah was asked about the allegations of writing a “re-imagined history” of Jammu and Kashmir, and erasing former PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s contributions, the Home Minister said Article 370 was included in the Constitution by the government of the first prime minister of the country and this had caused great loss to India.

“Article 370 was implemented because of Nehru ji. Since 1950 it had been on our agenda that it should not have been implemented. It caused a great loss to the country. Now with the manner in which development work is going on in Jammu and Kashmir, the way terrorists and terror attacks are decreasing this is being proved. You can see data. There are many changes which are happening in Jammu and Kashmir,” Shah was quoted as saying to the news agency.