A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari warned against using the name of Mughal emperor Babur for any structure in the state, Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) founder and Nowda MLA Humayun Kabir indicated he would drop the plan to name his under-construction Babri Masjid-styled mosque in Murshidabad after the invader.
On Wednesday, Adhikari said there was no objection to building places of worship. “You can build not one but a hundred masjids on your land. There is no problem with it. Mandir, Masjid, Church, Gurudwara come under individual rights given by the Constitution. But Babar did not belong to India. He was a Lootera,” he stated.
He added that no permission would be granted if Babur’s name was used, that Kabir’s plan lacked approval and documents (which could be processed quickly once the name was removed), and that he had instructed the district magistrate accordingly. “You will have to face its consequences” if the name remained, Adhikari warned.
On Thursday, Kabir said he would follow the Chief Minister’s decision: “Let the construction of the masjid be completed first. Then we will rethink its name.” Other reports quoted him saying the administrative head of the state must be respected and that if the CM did not want the “Babri” name, there was no choice but to comply. He noted that Adhikari had earlier suggested alternatives such as Kazi Nazrul Islam, Siraj-ud-Daulah or APJ Abdul Kalam.
In comments to TV9, however, Kabir opposed the Chief Minister’s approach and accused him of deliberately diverting public attention.
“The Chief Minister, knowingly and deliberately, instead of focusing on the development he is supposed to do in six months—road development, drinking water, electricity, expansion of new roads—is issuing one threat or another to completely divert people’s minds,” he said. He claimed Adhikari was confusing Babur with Babri.
Kabir argued that even if Babur was a plunderer or had seized power by force, that had no direct link to the Babri Mosque: “If Babur is a tyrant, if Babur became the emperor of India by force, what is the relation of that with Babri? The Babri Mosque was built by Mir Baqi, Babur’s commander. Babri and Babur are not the same. Babri is a woman. He has said that nothing will happen in Babur’s name. But there is no name of Babur there. Why are they being equated? That is not understandable.”
Kabir also said that three to four months earlier the Chief Minister had told him he would send a letter proposing a name change, but the letter had still not arrived. “Let the letter come first. Only after examining the content of the letter and its acceptability will there be consideration on this matter,” he stated.
The controversy follows Kabir’s earlier threats to block NH-34 on 6 December (the anniversary of the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition) and his plan for a mosque modelled on the demolished structure in Murshidabad’s Beldanga/Rejinagar area. Adhikari’s directive to the district magistrate came against that backdrop. BJP MLA Sajal Ghosh dismissed Kabir’s shifting positions as erratic.