New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir, who got suspended from the party for proposing to build a Babri mosque in Bengal’s Murshidabad, is drawing fire from all quarters including Islamic scholars, over his brazen attempts to fan a communal divide.
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi of the Barelvi sect tore into the now sacked Trinamool legislator from Murshidabad for the incendiary pledge in public, and warned him against attempts to polarise the discourse for political dividends.
Humayun Kabir had promised to do ‘shilanyas (foundation stone laying ceremony)’ for a mosque modelled on the lines of the Babri mosque on December 6 – the day when it was demolished, while disregarding the concerns raised by Raj Bhawan over law and order implications.
Humayun Kabir's contentious and divisive pledge of building a Babri mosque in Murshidabad, however, earned him the ire of party supremo Mamata Banerjee and he was subsequently suspended from the party.
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi of the Barelvi sect, in an interaction with IANS hit out at Humayun Kabir's rabble-rousing bid in a politically-sensitive state and said, “He wants to turn Murshidabad into Ayodhya. My request to him is that he shouldn’t go beyond the limits of law. While he is permitted by the Constitution to build a mosque, he should do so while staying within the stipulated framework of law."
Cautioning the former MLA against inflammatory speech and alleged attempts to communalise the atmosphere, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi said that if this happens, differences between people over religion and communal identities will take deeper roots among the public, thereby setting the stage for a long-term divide between communities in the state and the country.
“The already charged atmosphere of West Bengal will turn explosive and the opportunists will fan this divide to further their own political interests,” the cleric said, raising an alarm over the politician's remarks.
“Build a mosque but don’t name it after Babri,” he said in a one-line advice.
--IANS
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