Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is making a mistake by increasingly empowering a personality like the state municipal affairs & urban development minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, since the latter could challenge her leadership, BJP’s Information Technology Cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal Amit Malviya said on Monday.
“If Mamata Banerjee continues her silence, she risks empowering a figure whose ideological ambitions could ultimately challenge her leadership and catalyze a deeper push toward the Islamization of Bengal,” Malviya said in a statement that he posted on the wall of his official X handle.
Malviya had also explained why he had made this observation and referred to a recent statement made by Hakim that “everything is alright in West Bengal”, while reacting to the recent unrest in Murshidabad district where protests over the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act turned violent since last week.
“This is the same man who referred to a part of Kolkata as ‘mini Pakistan’ and has previously made provocative statements promoting religious conversion to Islam. He has openly supported initiatives like Dawat-E-Islam and labelled non-Muslims as ‘unfortunate’. He has even envisioned an India governed entirely by Islamic law and jurisprudence,” observed Malviya in his statement.
According to him, it is a matter of “travesty” that Hakim is occupying the post of Kolkata Mayor, a chair which had been graced in the past by iconic Indians like Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das and Subhash Chandra Bose, among others.
“His ascent is symbolic of the erosion of the refined ‘bhadralok’ sensibilities that Kolkata was once renowned for,” Malviya added.
Malviya also said that it was a matter of shock for him that Hakim had indirectly “justified and expressed satisfaction” over the displacement of Hindus from Murshidabad.
“Bengali Hindus are being reduced to refugees in their own homeland like Kashmiri Pandits, who had to flee from Kashmir to escape religious persecution and seek refuge in Jammu and the rest of India,” he said.
(IANS)
