The Trinamool Congress on Thursday suspended party MLA Humayun Kabir from the party after he claimed that he would “build a Babri Masjid” in Murshidabad district, India Today reported.
The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindu extremists because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the deity Ram had been born. On January 22, 2024, the Ram temple was inaugurated at the site in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Tuesday, Kabir had stirred a controversy after declaring that he would lay the foundation stone for a mosque modelled on the Babri Masjid in Beldanga, Murshidabad on December 6, PTI reported.
On Thursday, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim announced the party’s decision to suspend Kabir for his remarks about the Babri Masjid, saying that the legislator had already been issued warnings several times before.
“We noticed that one of our MLAs from Murshidabad suddenly declared that he would build the Babri Masjid,” The Indian Express quoted Hakim as saying. “Why suddenly Babri Masjid? We already warned him.”
The Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal, has claimed that Kabir’s remarks were made with the intention of fuelling communal tensions. It alleged that he was being encouraged by the Bharatiya Janata Party, India Today reported.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this article featured an incorrect photograph of Bharatpur MLA Humayun Kabir. The error is regretted.
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