Humayun asked Babur to respect cows: Twitter trolls BJP's Madan Lal Saini

Who: RSS veteran Madan Lal Saini is the newly elected chief of BJP’s Rajasthan unit. After unsuccessfully contesting two Lok Sabha elections in 1991 and 1998 and assembly elections in 2008, Saini, a former MLA from Gudha in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhuna district, was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April.

What: According to Saini, Mughal emperor Humayun, on his deathbed, summoned his father Babur, the first emperor of the Mughal dynasty, to discuss a commitment to respect cows, Brahmins and women. Historians have told us that Babur died at least 25 years earlier. 

Where: “I can recall,” Saini began, at a press conference in Jaipur where reporters were questioning the BJP government’s commitment to stop the spate of lynching incidents in the name of cow protection, “when Humayun was dying, he summoned Babur and said that if you want to rule India, take care of three elements…” 

How: Rakbar Khan from Rajasthan’s Alwar is one of the several Muslim men who have been horrifically lynched for allegedly smuggling cows for slaughter in the past few years. And Saini is the latest in the line of BJP and RSS leaders who have been making statements in defence of the cow, rather than of the people killed in the name of cow protection. A BJP legislator from Telangana, T Raja Singh Lodh, said last month that the mob killings won’t stop until the cow is declared “rashtra mata” (mother of the nation). Some other leaders have come up with their own versions of history where cows feature prominently. RSS leader Indresh Kumar claims that Jesus was born in a cowshed, which event, he says, explains the provenance of the English expression “holy cow”.  

Saini’s statement, therefore, unleashed a challenge for social media enthusiasts, actors and stand-up comedians: who could match him for sheer, uninformed asininity? “Humayun originally called Alexander, but his ISD was deactivated owing to excess love jihad,” wrote actor Siddharth on Twitter. “Then they formed a WhatsApp group called destroy Hindus with Pope as the admin. Then they caused a drought that created #Rajesthan out of the Indian Ocean. Stop lynching #IndianHistory.”

Other users figured Saini could use a helping hand. “Then Babur said, ‘Why are you advising me, I am your father and I am already ruling Hindustan?’ To which Humayun said, ‘Rishte main to hum tumhare baap lagte hain, naam hai Shahenshah,” wrote author Arnab Ray on Twitter, referencing to Amitabh Bachchan’s famous lines.

Trending issues of the past featuring the BJP government also made a comeback with Saini’s gaffe. He is a student of the “Jio Institute of Historical Accuracy,” said a Twitter user, referring to the Institute of Eminence status awarded to the proposed Jio Institute. He studied “Entire Political Science,” said another, taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (Former Gujarat University Chancellor, M N Patel, once said that Modi holds a master’s degree from the university in “Entire Political Science”.) 

Modi leads from the front when it comes to quoting from ancient history to prove the greatness of Vedic sciences. And Saini’s words are just a reminder of how frequently the BJP-RSS fraternity makes it part of their speeches. For instance, Modi claims that the elephant-headed god Ganesha was the first in history to have undergone plastic surgery. A “concept similar to test tube baby must have existed,” claimed Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, at the time of the Mahabharata, and Sita (mythologically, “daughter of the earth”) is proof of it. Sharma also believes there is a similarity between the mischief-mongering sage Narada’s methods of relaying messages and, well, Google. And then there’s Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb, who believes that satellites and the internet existed during the Mahabharata era. History must be in the throes of an identity crisis — study of the past, or fiction for the future?