Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Sunday heaped praises on the Mughal rulers and claimed that they did not indulge in religious persecution or forced conversions but instead were patriots. Aiyar was speaking at a function to celebrate birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, former Indian Prime Minister and great grandfather of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
He even claimed that Mughals never carried out persecution of Hindus or indulged in forced religious conversions even though there is historical evidence of the same including accounts of beheadings carried on by or on behest of various Mughal rulers. While eulogising Mughals, Aiyar also claimed that the BJP does not consider non-Hindus as Indians.
“Muslim sultans, kings and emperors occupied the Delhi throne for 666 years. After that, how many Muslims and Hindus were left in this country? The numbers are very clear in the last 100-125 years. The British conducted the first census in 1872. After ruling for 666 years. the proportion of Muslims in the country was about 24% while Hindus constituted 72%. And these people say that there was violence, all girls were raped and they converted everyone to Islam. If this was true, 72% should have been Muslim and 24% Hindus,” Aiyar said while defending and downplaying the barbarity of Mughal rule.
LIVE: Celebration of 75th year of India's Independence & 132nd birth anniversary of former PM Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru #RememberingNehru https://t.co/Dr2cyR52Yu
— Congress (@INCIndia) November 14, 2021
Aiyar can be heard speaking at the event from 1 hour 1 minute mark onward.
He further said, “That’s why Jinnah had only one demand before demanding partition and give 30% reservation to Muslims in the Central Assembly. He did not say that give us 80 or 90 percent (reservation). This was rejected as they were only 26%. India is the only country in the world where the country did not become an Islamic nation despite Muslims coming here.”
At around 1 hour 30 minutes into the video, Aiyar further claimed that those outsiders who attacked India did not go back and became part of India. “This was the difference between Mughals and British. British did not consider India and were here to rule their country whereas Babar, BJP often refers to me as Babar’s son, came to India in 1526 and he died in 1530. Hence he was here in India for just 4 years. And he did not like India as there was no watermelon here,” he said.
“He knew he was ill. So he wrote a letter to his eldest son, Humayun and told him that if he wants to run the country then do not interfere in the religion of the people here. Because they are nice people and so do not interfere. You may succeed slightly but eventually you’ll have to go. If you want to run the country, respect all,” he claimed.
Heaping praises on Akbar, he said, “Our Congress office is also on Akbar Road, we have no issues. We are not saying ‘We are Congress, how can we stay on Akbar Road, change it to Maharana Pratap Road’. We never say that. Because we consider Akbar our own. We don’t consider him an outsider. Because he followed the instructions by his grandfather. They married Rajput women and hence they were part Hindus.”
He even said there were no incidents of beheading. To put things in perspective, Guru Tegh Bahadur, nine of the ten Sikh Gurus, was beheaded on instructions of Aurangzeb, for refusing to convert to Islam. Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Delhi marks the place of his execution.
