Hours before Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s scheduled address at Berhampore in Murshidabad district, the party on Wednesday suspended its Bharatpur MLA Humayun Kabir, days after he “vowed” to build a replica of the Babri Masjid in the district.
State Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim announced the suspension, saying, “We noticed that one of our MLAs from Murshidabad suddenly declared that he would build the Babri Masjid. Why suddenly Babri Masjid? We had already warned him. As per the decision of our party, we are suspending MLA Humayun Kabir.”
Kabir, who had been invited along with other leaders to attend Banerjee’s anti-SIR rally in Berhampore on Thursday, said he was informed of the decision just beforehand. “I will quit the party tomorrow, and on December 22 I will form a new political party. We will fight the upcoming Assembly election,” he said.
He added, “I am not backtracking from my decision to build the Babri Masjid, and its stone-laying ceremony will be held on December 6, the day the Babri Masjid was demolished.”
Kabir had earlier announced his plan to lay the foundation stone of the Babri Masjid replica in Murshidabad’s Beldanga on December 6 despite strong reservations from the party. The Trinamool leadership had conveyed to him that neither Banerjee nor the party would associate with such a proposal, especially ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.
Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose questioned the state government on why Kabir had not been arrested if his statements posed a law-and-order concern. “The reports I have received from the field, intelligence agencies and local opinion leaders indicate that someone is deliberately trying to turn Murshidabad into a hub of scandal. This will not be allowed,” he said.
Noting that this was “not merely a matter of building a place of worship”, the Governor said that if communal sentiments were being inflamed, the state and its government “will not remain mute spectators”.
The administration is already on high alert in Murshidabad. During her visit to the district on Tuesday, Banerjee held several rounds of meetings with administrative heads and party leaders to discuss the issue.
Kabir had been warned multiple times by the party leadership for making controversial statements in the media. The Chief Minister, too, had cautioned him earlier. “Mamata Banerjee spoke to every single leader in Murshidabad about this issue. The party leadership was fully aware of his activities, and only then was the decision to suspend him taken,” a senior TMC leader said.