Members of the RSS in West Bengal have said that Muslims in Kolkata should be barred from praing on the road, as it causes an ‘obstruction’
Speaking to DNA, Jishnu Bose, the secretary of RSS in south Bengal said that if Hindus started praying in the middle of the road every Thursday, it would only add to the problem. “People block the road to say namaz, which is inconvenient. It it’s done once or twice a year like that on Eid, it is understood, but doing it every day is an attempt to convert West Bengal into Bangladesh,” he said.
Bose added that Bikash Bhavan, which is the offices for several senior administration officials, is blocked because of people saying namaz. “This poses a security threat and they should be stopped,” he added.
Muslim religious leaders, on the other hand, said that it was true that if saying namaz on the road was causing inconvenience to others it should be stopped but they also see a hidden agenda in the Haryana incident.
Shafique Qasmi, imam, Nakhoda Masjid said that people said namaz on the road only because there was lack of space in the mosques. “The state must allow and assist in building newer mosques and refurbishing existing ones and at the same time many mosques which have been encroached upon should be freed. That way people will have enough place to say namaz and will leave the road alone,” Qasmi told DNA.
Md Nooruddin, president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind said, "Yes it is written in our inscription that our action and even our prayers should not cause any problems to others but when it is said at open spaces belonging to the government or any individual and are not thoroughfares, there should not be any problem. What has been happening in Haryana, preventing people from saying namaz, is also not correct. It is part of the hidden agenda of the saffron brigade.”
TMC leaders too were quick to react. “Convention makes law. What had been going on for decades should not be banned overnight. If need be, government should issue permission for those few minutes to allow people say namaz. If they think this momentary thing is obstruction of road, how come so many temples are built right on the road? They have their own agenda to take care of. They want to polarise the masses for their electoral dividend,” said TMC leader and state disaster management minister Javed Khan.
The seniormost member of Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, Subrata Mukherjee, came down heavily on the BJP saying, “This is what they have learnt, this is what they do. If I go to perform pujas, I will not be able to do. Similarly, they have brought a sadhu (sage) into politics. How will he deliver? We believe politics and religious beliefs should be kept separate. They say that they want to create India into a country of Hindus. They don’t care about minority votes and we believe in living in harmony,” he told DNA.
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