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Srinagar: Since it came to power in 2014, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has been on an overdrive to vilify the Mughals and Islamic rulers. But the five most popular monuments built by the country’s former Muslim rulers have generated hundreds of crores in revenue for the Union government over the last five years, official data shows.

Data tabled in the parliament by the Ministry of Culture on April 3 has revealed that Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh, Qutub Minar and Red Fort in New Delhi, Agra Fort and the Tomb of Rabia Durani in Maharashtra have been the five most popular Mughal-era monuments for tourists.

In the five year period from 2019-20 to 2023-24, the Union government earned Rs 548 crore from the sale of tickets to tourists at these five monuments, which also create direct and indirect employment for thousands of people in the government, hospitality and related sectors. The amount the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) spends on these monuments is far less; in the city of Agra, for instance the ASI spent Rs 23.52 crore in 2023-24 on the maintenance of all protected monuments – while ticket sales at the Taj Mahal alone earned Rs 98.5 crore in the same year.

The Qutub Minar in Delhi. Photo: Marvin Castelino/Unsplash

“At a time when Mughal rulers are castigated and ridiculed by the BJP leaders, the same government is earning huge revenue from their mausoleums and heritage sites. This is a real hypocrisy and exposes their dual character,” Raja Muzaffar Bhat, a Srinagar-based social activist, said.

A Right to Information (RTI) application has revealed that 2.2 crore tourists visited the Taj Mahal, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the country’s most visited Mughal monument in the Uttar Pradesh city of Agra, in the five-year period between 2019-20 and 2023-24, generating revenue of Rs 297.33 crore.

Data revealed by the ASI in response to the RTI application filed by M.M. Suja, a Srinagar-based........

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