Mughal Emperor Babur is again in the news after Hotstar launched its propaganda effort to whitewash his genocidal inclinations in a web series titled ‘The Empire’. ‘The Empire’ presents a very rosy portrait of the genocidal maniac who took great joy in committing mass slaughter further his ideology.
But there is one aspect of Babur that has remained rather ignored yet. The ruling dynasty of the Congress party appears to have some sort of fascination with the Mughal Emperor. In fact, his tomb has been visited by three generations of rulers from the dynasty. Jawaharlal Nehru visited Babur’s tomb in Afghanistan in 1959, Indira Gandhi in 1968 and Rahul Gandhi in 2005.
Indira Gandhi even paid respect to the tomb. Natwar Singh, former External Affairs Minister and a bureaucrat at the time, wrote in his autobiography, “The Prime Minister of India stood there, with head slightly bowed, paying her homage. I was a couple of feet behind her. It was a moment to cherish, recall and remember. At that moment the centuries seemed to blend and blur.”
He added, “After a minute she stepped back and said, ‘We have had our brush with history’. I said, ‘I have had two.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘To pay one’s respects to Babur was itself an occasion,’ I said, ‘but to do so in the company of Indira Gandhi was the rarest of privileges’.”
In 2005, Rahul Gandhi accompanied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the visit of Afghanistan. Rahul Gandhi accompanied Singh everywhere, including at the meeting with then Afghan president Hamid Karzai and a visit to Babur’s tomb.
The Organiser, affiliated to the RSS, has often taken an objection for paying obeisance to the Mughal dynasty. In an article on its platform in 2019, it was stated, “Ever wondered why each one of the scions of the Gandhi family never failed to pay obeisance to the Mughal emperor Babar at his far away tomb in Kabul, Afghanistan? Ever wondered why the newly-minted janeu dhari Shiv bhakt never gave a damn about visiting the grave of a Hindu King that’s lying there a few metres away?”
The article further goes on to ask, “It is time to expose Rahul Gandhi aka janeu dhari Shiv Bhakt. Why must they pay obeisance to the murderer of lakhs of Hindus and plunderer of our temples? Why must, even today, Zaheeruddin Babur, the destroyer of Sri Ram temple in Ayodhya, continue to beckon and inspire the members of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty?”
A few days earlier, Hotstar rejected claims that ‘The Empire’ whitewashes the history of the genocidal tyrant. Babur also happened to have rather unconventional sexual inclinations, bordering on extremely problematic and often crossing the boundaries.
Babur’s tomb is situated at the Gardens of Babur, located in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was heavily damaged in the Afghan Civil War between 1992-96 before a restoration effort was launched by the Afghan Ministry.
