Lucknow: Taj Mahal is no longer a place of tourist interest for the Yogi Adityanath government.
The monument of love, which is among the Seven Wonders of the World, has been left out of the tourism booklet published by the state government on World Tourism Day.
The booklet, ‘Uttar Pradesh Paryatan — Apaar Sambhavnayen’, published by the UP tourism department, covers almost all major tourist destinations in the state except Taj Mahal.
The Yogi government has now clarified that they would include a picture of the Taj Mahal in the booklet soon.
In June this year, Yogi Adityanath had said that according to him, the Ramayana and Bhagwad Gita represent the Indian culture and not the Taj Mahal.
The Yogi government’s first state budget for 2017-18 had also made no mention of the Taj Mahal in its special section ‘Hamari Sanskritik Virasat’ (Our Cultural Heritage) that was incorporated in the finance minister’s speech.
The cover of this booklet carries a picture of a ‘Ganga Aarti’ ceremony, along with the photos of tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Yogi Adityanath. The booklet explains the importance and significance of the Ganga Aarti of Varanasi, Gorakhpur’s Gorakh Peeth, Mathura-Vrindavan, Ayodhya and all major religious places in UP.
