Taj Mahal Creates Jobs, Says Akhilesh After UP Tourism Booklet Row

Yadav visited the Taj Mahal with his wife and children to see the white marble mausoleum on a full moon night.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

(Photo: Reuters)

The Taj Mahal is an architectural marvel, a wonder of the world, and for the Samajwadi Party, also a much visited monument that generates employment for a large number of people, said party president Akhilesh Yadav.

Yadav visited the Taj Mahal with his wife and children to see the white marble mausoleum on the full moon night of Sharad Poornima, when the moon is believed to be especially luminous.

As far as we Samajwadis are concerned, all I can say is that Taj Mahal gives jobs and employment to a large number of people. Business also thrives.

Akhilesh Yadav

Yadav’s comments are an apparent dig at the current BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government. They come after reports of UP’s tourism department omitting the Taj Mahal from a booklet on major tourist destinations in the state.

Also Read: Taj Missing from UP Tourism But Yogi Govt Says It’s Not Political

Yadav also recalled his first trip to see the Taj Mahal by night.

Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) was the UP Chief Minister, and after a lot of efforts, the Supreme Court had allowed night viewing of Taj Mahal for tourists... Today, when the children are here with me, they are more excited than me.

Following the reports, the state government jumped to clarify, stating:

Tourism projects worth Rs 370 crore are proposed, under which schemes worth Rs 156 crore are meant for the Taj Mahal and its surrounding areas in Agra.

UP tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had reportedly released the pamphlet, denied that the Taj Mahal was deliberately omitted.

Seeing everything in the light of religion and playing politics over it is not right. Those playing politics over this must know that people go to Mecca for Haj.

Rita Bahuguna to <i>Times of India</i>

Earlier media reports had claimed that UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s disdain for the 17th century Mughal monument was made clear in the state’s 2017-2018 budget.

The Quint, however, found this to be untrue. RS Jamwal, Director of Conservation at the Archaeological Survey of India, confirmed that the government agency, under the Ministry of Culture, is responsible for the Taj Mahal’s primary conservation and restoration, and not the state government.