Rajasthan BJP chief Madan Lal Saini on Thursday claimed Mughal emperor Akbar tried to misbehave with the queen of Bikaner in the all-women Meena Bazaar. He also said that Akbar "was not great" and used to visit the establishment of Meena Bazaar in disguise to "exploit" women.

"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'," claimed Madan Lal Saini.

He was speaking on sidelines of a function to mark the birth anniversary of Mewar king Maharana Pratap in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Asserting that the kind of misdeeds Akbar used to commit is recorded on the pages of history, the Rajasthan BJP chief said that the Mughal emperor used to organize Meena Bazaar with this sole purpose.

Saini claimed that a Rajput woman and the Bikaner queen, Kiran Devi, who saw through Akbar's "ill intentions", pushed him to the ground before, put a knife to his chest and forced him to plead for his life. Meena Bazaar has been closed since that day, he said.

"Comparing Maharana Pratap with the Mughal emperor is making a mockery of the history," said Saini.

The BJP, while it was in power in Rajasthan, had decided to remove the suffix 'Great' from Akbar's name in schoolbooks and maintained that Akbar had lost to Maharana Pratap in the battle of Haldighati.

"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, said Saini.

Saini's statement invited swift condemnation from the Congress, which accused the state BJP of creating communal disharmony.

"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," Congress vice president Archana Sharma said.