Madan Lal Saini, the Rajasthan BJP chief, made shocking comments on Friday claiming that Mughal emperor Akbar had misbehaved with the queen of Bikaner at the famous all-women Meena Bazaar.
Madan Lal Saini made these outrageous remarks at an event held in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on the birth anniversary for Maharana Pratap, the Mewar King.
"The entire world knows that Akbar organised 'Meena Bazaars' where only women worked. Men were not permitted to visit them. But Akbar used to visit them in disguise to commit 'dushkarm'," Madan Lal Saini said on the sidelines of the events.
Saini went on to say that one of the primary reasons the Mughal emperor created Meena Bazaar was so that he could visit it in disguise and meet the women there, reports India Today.
The altercation between Kiran Devi, the Queen of Bikaner, and Akbar happened when the former, along with a Rajput woman realised the emperor's true intentions and threatened him with a knife to his heart. This incident was the end of Meena Bazaar, Saini alleged.
These remarks were made in response to comparing Maharana Pratap with Akbar. Saini said, "Comparing Maharana Pratap with the Mughal emperor is making a mockery of the history."
The government in Rajasthan have also gone on to propose removing the 'great' suffix from Akbar's name, since according to Saini, he is not great.
"I believe Maharana Pratap's respect, his glory won't be lessened by removing it from books. Maharana Pratap is in people's hearts, he cannot be removed from there. He cannot be removed from history. They may remove four lines from the history about him," Saini claimed.
However, not everyone was happy with the state BJP's chief remarks with Congress accusing it of creating friction.
"The entire country is proud of Maharana Pratap's valour and people imitate his values but the BJP leader has presented a distorted history which creates enmity in society and leads to its disintegration," said Congress's Rajasthan vice-president Archana Sharma.
