lucknow

Updated: Sep 13, 2017 16:58 IST

Describing Mughal emperors Babur and Aurangzeb as plunderers who never respected Indian values, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma on Tuesday said the history books of the state board will be rewritten by a panel of independent historians.

The deputy chief minister, who holds the secondary and higher education portfolios, said Babur and Aurangzeb just harassed people and committed atrocities, while Bahadur Shah Zafar was a patriot who started the fight for independence, he said.

“That’s why Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his (Bahadur Shah Zafar’s) tomb in Myanmar recently,” he said.

Sharma was participating in the Safaigiri awards of a Delhi-based media house in Lucknow.

Asserting that the cruelty of Akbar would not be part of Indian history, he declared his “good side with Birbal” will be put in the books.

He said , “Till now Europeans, Turks, Moghuls, French, Chinese and Communists have written Indian history but now the things have changed. A panel of historians will be formed to rewrite history as most of the Indian greats have been shown in a poor light in the past.”

Claiming that icons like Guru Teg Bahadur, Maharana Pratap, Guru Govind Singh and Shivaji, were shown as dacoits in textbooks, he said such things would be changed.

“We must learn to respect our ancestors. We do not carry the legacy of invaders but we carry the legacy of Lord Ram, Krishna, Guru Nanak, Mahavir, Gautam Buddha , Guru Govind Singh and Shivaji. We will have to study more about them, not about invaders,” he said.

To a question on the Taj Mahal, he said, “The Taj Mahal is an outstanding monument depicting Indian craftsmanship but Shahjahan amputated the hands of artisans who made the Taj. This is not Indian culture and shows he was barbaric. He created a feeling of panic among artisans and engineers who could not gather the courage to build more such monuments.”