A country filled with diversity. A country inhabited by nature’s most alluring species of plants and animals. The existence of jaw-dropping nature and unfathomable history in such close proximity is no less than a miracle. A country where an argument over “What is better, Pani puri or bhel puri?” on Facebook can in a short time turn into a Hindu-Muslim feud. Incredible India.

“Incredible India,” a phrase that you see on a huge Taj Mahal picture at the airport, in hotels or at any fancy place you can think of. But not anymore, because one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a UNESCO heritage, India’s pride and one of the biggest tourist attraction of India has failed to be included as part of the tourist map issued by the government of the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The irony. The common man is in an utter state of confusion try to imagine the reason for this, not taking long to realize that the BJP government never ceases to startle citizens when it comes to questioning and latter banning anything that has the faintest connection to Islam, targeting Masjid, meat, Muslims and now Mahal.

It is heart-wrenchingly disappointing that even the Taj Mahal is being used by the BJP government for its political gain and for the spread of the Hindutva ideology of the party.

Sangeet Som, a BJP lawmaker, called the Taj Mahal built by Shah Jahan a blot on Indian culture because it was built by “traitors” (Muslims) who killed many Hindus.

Yogi Adithyanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh, the state where the Taj Mahal is located, remains oblivious to the fact that more than half of the tourist monuments in India were erected by Mughal emperors or traitors, as they like to call them. The Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb, the Red Fort, Qutub Minar and Jama Masjid are only a few of the many significant monuments built by Muslims.

The BJP has been well known over the years for the quality of the ignorant people they elect, as is obvious by the comments made by the mahant turned chief minister that the Taj Mahal is not a part of Bharatiya Sanskriti (Indian culture) and Yogi Adityanath saying that the Taj Mahal has no connection with India’s culture.

Does Yogi Adithyanath realize that the tricolor is hoisted every Independence Day on a monument built by a Muslim emperor? Does he comprehend how issues like these that have been turned into controversies are the reason that India is failing miserably in political and developmental spheres?

Perhaps for the next election, the BJP should consider changing the party’s name to “Say no to secularism” or “Hating Muslims since 1951” with “we make massive mountains out of tiny molehills” as the punch line.

Fakeha Zinjani,

Jeddah