NEW DELHI, Oct 16: The Indian Supreme Court rapped the rightwing wing Hindu government in the state of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday for the attack on the fabled 17th century Mughal monument by religious zealots at the weekend and ordered a thorough probe into the incident. It demanded the report in two weeks.

The opposition Congress party described Sunday’s attack by Hindu militants as an “expression of their fascist designs” on the monument.

The attack came during a two-day conference organized by the religious revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and most of his cabinet colleagues of the Bharatiya Janata Party addressed the conference in Agra.

The Press Trust of India said the Supreme Court took a serious view of vandalism when hundreds of men raided the premises, danced the bhangra with their shoes on, on fragile the marble floor and where tourists are always asked to go barefoot.

Reports said the militants scribbled the marble walls with graffiti amid chants of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Matram”.

The news agency quoted the court as telling the Uttar Pradesh government and Director of Archaeological Survey of India to investigate the matter and report to it within two weeks about the steps taken to prevent such incidents in future.

Justices M.B.Shah and D. Raju issued the ordered after advocate Vijay Panjawani brought to the court’s notice a photograph and a report in the media showing the invasion of the unruly crowd into the usually well protected monument — a world heritage.

It was the second incident of mob invasion at the Taj. Last month, a group of advocates, who had been demanding setting up of a bench of Allahabad High Court in Western Uttar Pradesh had also invaded the marble monument.

In this incident, the court had given four weeks time to the Vajpayee government to explain measures taken to prevent such incidents.