LUCKNOW: Chairman Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board Hafiz Usman on Wednesday agreed to grant a month’s time to the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to collect evidence to prove its ownership over the historical Taj Mahal at Agra. The next hearing has been fixed on May 20.

This extension was granted in response to the Superintending Archaeologist of the ASI Agra Circle’s letter of 13 April. The letter states, “that this office is collecting old and all relevant records pertaining to this issue of Taj Mahal. It will take some more time to file objections before your office”.

However, the Assistant Superintendent of the ASI, Mr S.K. Sharma, was personally present during the hearing at the Waqf Board, Lucknow, headquarters on Tuesday where the chairman informed him about the board’s decision to grant “the ASI a month’s time to furnish their response”, informed Mr Usman.

The issue of Taj Mahal being a Waqf property came into the limelight when the Allahabad High Court, in an order on November 8, 2004, had asked the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board to adjudicate on the issue within three months. This was in response to a PIL filed by a Firozabad businessman Irfan Bedar demanding Taj Mahal to be declared a Sunni Waqf property and he be appointed its Trustee.

Speaking to the TNS, the Waqf Board chairman is confident that he would be able to get the Taj registered as a Waqf property. It is probably not a coincidence that a massive replica of the Taj Mahal sits pretty on his table.

Flashing a photostat of pages from an Urdu book, Mr Usman declares that the board has in its possession clinching evidence in the shape of this book called ‘Badshahnama’ written by Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori and published by the Asiatic Society Library,Kolkatta in 1968.

The book records the builder of the Taj Mahal, the Mughal emperor Shahjehan declaring the monument as a Waqf property directly under him during his lifetime and under the “hakime waqf” (the head of the Waqf) after his death, claims Mr Usman.

While denying a share in the handsome revenue generated by the monument as the prime object of the move to register it as a Sunni Waqf property, Mr Usman said the main purpose was to set the ownership record straight. “If we can prove that Taj Mahal is a Waqf property why not have it registered as such. The Taj will remain where it is only we will have a say in using the revenue being generated from it”, clarified Mr Usman.

According to him the other Mughal era architectural marvel under the Waqf Board and being administered by it is the Fatehpur Sikri, Babri Masjid and the Juma masjid in Agra among others. Substantiating his claim for a say in spending the revenue generated from the Taj Mahal, Mr Usman said ,”My major grudge is that while the government is generating crores of rupees as revenue it is not paying any attention to the masjid attached to it. It was in a dilapidated condition and people entered it wearing shoes. The person working there as a muezzin receives a mere Rs 15 per month as salary”.

While Irfan Bedar had filed the petition in 1998 it had been referred to the Wafq Board where it had remained pending for the last many years. It is only under the newly appointed chairman Hafiz Usman that the matter suddenly acquired center stage.

Believed to be a protégé of the maverick State Minister of Urban Affairs Mohammad Azam Khan, Mr Usman also happens to be the National Secretary of the Samajwadi Party and a former President of the Aligarh Muslim University Students Union.—By arrangement with Tribune News Service/Chandigarh