Perpetually embroiled in one or the other controversy, contentious Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan recently said in an interview that 2000 universities instead of Taj Mahal would have made Muslims the world’s most educated community. Casting his ire on Mughal rulers, Khan asserted if only they had concentrated on building education institutes and universities, India would have turned into a global hub of education, having a profound impact on Muslim literacy.

Azam Khan made this comment during an interview with Times of India. He said this while answering a question on whether he approves the SP-BSP alliance. He said that his party did an experiment thinking it would yield better results, but it didn’t work out. He added that party had unanimously thought that a strong alliance was needed to defeat BJP. Perhaps blaming lack of education in Muslims for the defeat of his party, Azam Khan said that Mughal kings should have made universities and education institutions instead of Taj Mahal. He asserted that 2,000 universities could have been established instead of one Taj Mahal. “India would have been the global hub of education and Muslims would have been the most educated community in the world”, he added.

Talking about his sexist poetry against BJP MP Rama Devi in Lok Sabha recently which had created stirred a furore in the parliament, the Urdu language has only love, kindness and humanity. Azam Khan said that he is ready to resign from Lok Sabha if what he had said was unparliamentary.

When asked about his controversial statements against women, Azam Khan denied the allegations. He said that he runs educational institutions for girls, and if he such a repeat offender, such complaints would have emerged from other places also. He said that Jaya Prada has made the allegations because she is now his political rival.

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The SP leader also denied the allegations that he has grabbed land from farmers illegally for his university. He said people who have sold land to him have now filed cases against him, and some of them have criminal past also. He said that he is being called land shark only for four bighas of land. Khan is at the centre of land grabbing cases in Rampur as eight new cases of land squatting in the district have been filed against him. With this, the total count of cases against him has risen to 34. According to the complaints, farmers’ lands were illegally grabbed by the SP leader using forged documents for construction of Mohammed Ali Jauhar University in Rampur. The multi-million private university is run by Khan’s trust. The UP govt has also declared him as a land mafia on the Anti-Bhoo Mafia (anti-land mafia) portal of the state government.

Azam Khan also rejected the allegations that his university had stolen books from a madarsa, saying that the madarsa had closed down 60 years ago. He added that his university does not have any course on Islam, therefore it does not need books that are not part of its syllabus.