Indian government rejects Waqf Board's claim to Taj Mahal

The Indian government Friday rejected a Muslim body's claim to ownership of the Taj Mahal monument which sparked angry reactions among Hindus. Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj said there was no need for the Sunni Waqf Board to take charge of the world-famous monument which it claimed this week because it houses Muslim graves.
"I am surprised about this declaration. The Sunni Waqf Board already has so much property and they do not know how to take care of it," Bhardwaj said.
"There is no need for any other body to look after the monument as the (national) Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is taking care of it quite well," the minister said on the sidelines of a legal seminar.
The Waqf board, which manages India's Sunni graveyards and mosques, laid claim to the national treasure on Wednesday after a state court asked whether it considered itself the owner of the white-marbled building.
The monument was built by the Moghul emperor Shah Jahan in the 17th century and houses his grave and that of his wife Mumtaj Mahal, to whom it is dedicated.
The Waqf board's statement sparked anger among Hindu groups and the ASI-approved Taj Conservation Committee said Friday that it would take the board to court.
"We will tell the Supreme Court that the board's decision has made the historic monument a subject of controversy which might result in the curtailment of tourist flow to it," committee president Ajai Agarwal told reporters in Agra, the northern town where the Taj stands. "The Taj is also on the hit-list of terrorists and the Waqf Board has no infrastructure to look after the monument," he said.
The ASI has warned the Muslim board's claims could blunt tourism and lead to mismanagement of the fragile monument, which is adorned by four slender minarets and attracts two million tourists a year.
An Agra-based historian also rejected the Waqf's claim as did two local academics.
"It would be an unwelcome development as it has a poor record of looking after its properties," Ramesh Chandra Sharma, who has been teaching history for 40 years in Agra's prestigious St. John's College, said of the board.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday called for the Waqf Boards to be disbanded.