Kolkata: A nine-year-old controversy reared its head again at the KMC monthly House session on Thursday, when a BJP councillor claimed that mayor Firhad Hakim had called Garden Reach ‘mini Pakistan' in April 2016. Hakim, who was then a minister but not yet the mayor, had allegedly said this while speaking to a correspondent of Pakistani daily ‘Dawn', hours before the fifth phase of the Assembly polls.
But Hakim challenged BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh to furnish documents in support of his claim, vehemently denying having made such a statement. "You give me proof, I will resign not only from the mayor's post but quit politics altogether," he said.
The issue surfaced during a debate on the BJP's alleged move to tarnish Bengali pride. Ghosh highlighted Hakim's ‘mini Pakistan' statement, perhaps to prove he was not a desh-bhakt as he claimed to be. Furious, Hakim said, "Yes, I am a Muslim. But more than that, I am an Indian, and like all patriotic Indians, I feel Pakistan is our enemy country." He later reiterated to reporters that had never said anything of that sort to the ‘Dawn' correspondent.
"Please come along and let's take you to mini Pakistan in Kolkata," the Bengal urban minister was reported to have told Dawn reporter Maleeha Hamid Siddiqui as she trailed him on a campaign rally in Garden Reach. The report, ‘Canvassing in ‘mini Pakistan' of Kolkata' by Siddiqui, appeared in the Dawn's web edition and got thousands of ‘likes' on Facebook.
BJP had demanded Hakim's removal from Trinamool. Hakim had then responded: "It's a blatant attempt to foment communal tensions ahead of election... If PM Modi can visit Pakistan four times, how does it matter if one Firhad Hakim gives a ‘mini Pakistan' statement?" His party members had distanced themselves.
On Thursday, Hakim came down heavily on Nitish Kumar for his attempt at pulling down a Muslim woman's hijab in Patna. "Nitish Kumar's mind is polluted due to his association with BJP. Indian culture and civilization don't approve of such a barbaric act," he said.