West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim’s remarks sparks row, BJP demands action

A controversy has erupted in West Bengal over the remarks of the Mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and State’s Minister Firhad Hakim, where he is heard saying those not born in Islam were unfortunate.

“They are unfortunate who are not born in Islam. We have to bring them under the fold of Islam. Allah will be happy if we do so,” Mr. Hakim had said on July 3 during an ‘All India Quran Competition’ event that took place on July 3.

“I have a request for this foundation. That is… if we do such a ceremony, especially the people of Islam, it [Islam] should be spread among non-Muslims,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader is also heard saying in the video.  

The remarks made by a key Minister of a Cabinet of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sparked reactions in the political circles, with particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding action against the Minister.

“There should be suo motu legal proceedings against him (Firhad Hakim). His comments have shaken the foundations of the Constitution. The remarks will embolden the fundamentalist forces and the modules hiding in the State. Had it been any other State, he would have been arrested,” State BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Shamik Bhattacharya said at a press conference on Sunday.

Mr. Bhattacharya said that Mr. Hakim had in the past described an area in Kolkata as “mini Pakistan”.

The controversy has refused to die down despite Mr. Hakim clarifying that there was nothing controversial in the remarks. “The people of West Bengal know that I am a secular person. I believe in my religion and respect other religions. I organise Durga Puja and Kali Puja,” he said.

State BJP president and Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar described the remarks as “highly condemnable”. “Suggesting that those not born as Muslims are born with misfortune, and that converting to Islam is the way to please Allah is deeply offensive and divisive. Such remarks undermine the principles of religious freedom and equality,” Mr. Majumdar said.

The remarks were made by the Minister at a private event organised at a government auditorium, and come in the backdrop of similar remarks made by Trinamool MLA Hamidur Rahaman who, while justifying the public flogging of a woman in Chopra, had said that such “things (kangaroo courts) occur in Muslim caste”. The developments assume significance as politics in West Bengal has come to hinge on religious polarisation.