Didi intervenes, Barkati removes red beacon

After chief minister Mamata Banerjee sent her emissary on Saturday, Noor-ur-Rehman Barkati, the imam of Kolkata’s Tipu Sultan mosque, removed the red beacon from his car, only a day after he told the media that he will take it off only if the Prime Minister and cabinet colleagues got rid of their security cover.

According to a close aide of Barkati, urban development minister Firhad Hakim met him in the afternoon with a message from the chief minister, following which the imam quietly removed it, bringing the curtains down on a controversy that had the imam railing against the Union government and the judiciary for the past few days.

The minister later described the controversy as a ‘closed chapter’. However, the imam faced mounting criticism from various sections including prominent Muslim bodies that staged an agitation against him. Community leaders such as Qari Fazlur Rahman (who conducts the largest Eid prayer in Kolkata) and minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury were irked with him.

“The intolerant statements of Tipu Sultan masjid imam can trigger excitement are deplorable. We are Indians and every citizen should abide by the Constitution, democratic, secular and cultural values and criminals laws,” said a statement from West Bengal State Jamiat-E-Ulama.

Though the imam removed the beacon, minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, stuck to his agitation programme.

Hours after the red beacon from his car had been removed, Barkati lodged a police complaint against Chowdhury for creating a disturbance outside Tipu Sultan mosque. In his complaint, Barkati said the minister and his men had disturbed the peace and harmony.