Kolkata Mayor Gives Open Call To Convert People To Islam; BJP Slams 'Appeasement Politics'

The Mayor of Kolkata Firhad Hakim stirred a massive controversy after he openly called people to convert to Islam and said non-Muslims are unfortunate and need to bring Iman in them to make Allah happy.

Hakim, TMC leader and a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, made the contentious remarks during the ‘All India Quran Competition’. The event took place on July 3 at Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata.

“Those who are not born in Islam are unfortunate! They are born with misfortune. We have to bring them under the fold of Islam,” the Kolkata Mayor said during the event.

“We need to spread Islam among non-Muslims. If we can bring someone on the path of Islam, then, we will prove to be true Muslims,” Hakim added.

Notably, this is not the first time when the Mayor of Kolkata has grabbed the headlines for the wrong reasons. In April 2016, he had called a Muslim-dominated area of Kolkata as “Mini-Pakistan”.

BJP Attacks TMC

Lashing out at the Trinamool Congress, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya took to X and attacked the ruling TMC for “extreme appeasement politics in West Bengal”.

“The TMC’s penchant for extreme appeasement politics in West Bengal is an open secret. The party’s relentless appeasement politics has paid off, as evident from the successive electoral victories and subsequent post-poll violence, which have emboldened the TMC, making it more audacious and haughty than ever,” Maviya wrote in a post on X.

Further referring to the recent video in which a TMC leader was seen assaulting a man and a woman openly, Malviya wrote, “The brazen act of publicly flogging a woman by TMC’s JCB in a manner akin to Sharia Court punishment and the reprehensible defense by TMC’s Chopra MLA, Hamidur Rahman, asserting such actions are typical in a ‘Muslim Rashtra,’ have already incited a political maelstrom and bears the testament to the TMC’s ‘underlying agenda’.”

BJP leader and Bengal MLA Agnimitra Paul hit out at Hakim’s inflammatory speech and said his comments not only insults the profound spirituality of Hinduism but also threaten the harmony and unity that our nation cherishes.