New Delhi: Discarding the popular belief that Akbar was great, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has claimed that only 16th century Mewar king Maharana Pratap held that eminence as he refused to accept Akbar as the emperor since a “Turk could not be trusted”.

While addressing an RSS gathering to mark the Mewar king’s birth celebrations on Thursday, the chief minister maintained Pratap remained relevant even after 500 years of his death. A special edition of RSS magazine ‘Avadh Prahri’ was also released on the occasion.

According to a report in The Indian Express, Yogi referred to the 1576 Haldighati battle and said it was unimportant who won or lost. “It is important that Maharana Pratap fought it for several years in the hills of Aravalli with his self-respect and ultimately won back his forts.” He said Pratap set an example of bravery as the fight was not for a day but went on for years.

“Maharana Pratap proved it was not Akbar who was great but only Maharana Pratap was great by ultimately winning back his forts.”

Adityanath said Akbar had asked Pratap to accept him as the king and promised in return that he would not interfere in the affairs of his kingdom of Mewar. He said even Jaipur king Man Singh came as a messenger but Pratap refused.

“I cannot accept Akbar as the king… he is a Turk and he will remain so… he will hurt our self-respect in the garb of friendship… we cannot accept a foreigner as a king,’’ Adityanath quoted Pratap as saying amid chants of “jai Shri Ram”.

The statement comes a month after some reports claimed that the Yogi-government is mulling to rechristen Allahabad as ‘Prayag’, a long pending demand of sadhus and saints of the Sangam City.

A news report in Pioneer stated that the new name was likely to be approved by the state cabinet soon.

“The wrong that the Mughal emperor did should be corrected. We expect that the Chief Minister will issue orders towards changing the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj,” Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad president Mahant Narendra Giri had told the newspaper.

On Thursday, the UP CM claimed there were other kings in those times who put their own self-respect at stake to accept Akbar as king. Adityanath added Pratap stood against all odds.

He said lessons from those times were still applicable. Adityanath claimed some people are ready to disturb their own society, culture and country even today for their benefits. He added that they then suffer damage.

Adityanath asked scheduled castes, tribes and backward communities to regard themselves as Pratap’s descendent. “It was actually these tribes, which made Pratap great,” he said.

“On whose strength did Maharana Pratap fight… it was castes whom we today call Dalit, backward and Vanvasi…,’’ he said. Adityanath added Pratap fought in adverse conditions and Akbar was unable to hurt him.