'Don't spend govt money on upkeep of Aurangzeb's tomb,' demands Raj Thackeray's MNS

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Tuesday demanded that no government money be spent on the upkeep of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, escalating a long-simmering debate over the controversial historical figure.

“Don’t spend government money on upkeep of Aurangzeb’s tomb,” said the Raj Thackeray-led party in a memorandum submitted to district collector Dileep Swami. The tomb, located in Khultabad in central Maharashtra, is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India.

The MNS’s five-point memorandum comes amid renewed calls by right-wing groups to remove the tomb altogether. Among its demands, the party asked for the installation of a board at the site with the message: “We, Marathas, have buried Aurangzeb here who came to finish us.”

It also called for the removal of any decorative elements around the tomb and requested that the entire area be placed under CCTV surveillance. 
Additionally, the party proposed that school students from the district be taken on study tours to the site “so that they know the history associated with the controversial medieval-era Mughal emperor, who ruled from 1658 to 1707.”

On Monday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis acknowledged that while Aurangzeb’s tomb is a protected structure, “his glorification will not be allowed.”

At his Gudi Padwa rally at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on Sunday, MNS chief Raj Thackeray addressed the controversy, warning against attempts to stir communal discord over the site. He said history should not be viewed “from the prism of caste and religion,” and cautioned people not to rely on “WhatsApp forwards for historical information.”

Thackeray added that Aurangzeb had sought to “kill a thought called Shivaji” but failed and ultimately “died in Maharashtra.”

(With inputs from PTI)