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Wrong Humayun Kabir! Trinamool MLA flooded with calls over namesake’s Babri mosque appeal
Suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir's donation appeal for the Babri Masjid-style mosque landed in Paschim Medinipore's Debra, to another Humayun Kabir.
Little did suspended Trinamool Congress MLA Humayun Kabir know that his calls for donation for a Babri Masjid-style mosque in West Bengal's Murshidabad would end up in another man getting flooded with endless phone calls.
In an unusual and amusing mix-up in West Bengal, Humayun Kabir's donation appeal for the mosque landed 200 km away in Paschim Medinipore's Debra, to another Humayun Kabir, the suspended MLA's former colleague and namesake.
One Humayun Kabir laid the foundation stone of the the proposed mosque at Beldanga in Murshidabad's Rejinagar area, and appealed for donations for it on Saturday.
The following two days became cumbersome for another Humayun Kabir in Debra, a Trinamool MLA who spent all his time clarifying to strangers on the phone that he wasn't the Humayun Kabir they wanted to reach out to.
"For last one week, I really had a tough time attending continuous calls and messages meant for Humayun Kabir of Murshidabad. Its a case of mistaken identity," the Debra MLA and former IPS officer, told news agency PTI.
Also Read: After Babri-style mosque storm, ex TMC MLA takes u-turn on resignation: 'People don't want me to resign'
The Debra MLA said that nearly all the callers were willing to transfer money for the mosque in Murshidabad, and he had to keep explaining to them who he was. "I have to keep explaining that I am not that Humayun Kabir of Murshidabad. I am a different person, though we were both TMC MLAs, till the time he was suspended last week," he said.
Apart from Indian states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Haryana and Rajasthan, the MLA also received calls from outside India.
"I usually pick up all unknown numbers. In the last two days, I must have taken close to 200 such calls," Debra MLA Humayun Kabir said, while adding that the situation didn't annoy him but was just a bit awkward.
"I politely ask them to find the correct number and contact the other Humayun Kabir directly," the former cabinet minister added.
The legislator had quit his job as a decorated police officer, to join politics in 2021.
Following the relentless calls, the Debra MLA also took to Facebook and said in a post: "Temples and mosques are not arenas for political wrestling, but spaces for prayer and worship."
The foundation stone laying of a Babri Masjid-styled mosque by suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir at Rejinagar in Murshidabad district on December 6 has triggered a political storm in West Bengal.
Also Read: After Babri Masjid replica in Bengal, a Muslim organisation plans memorial in Hyderabad
While the BJP says it has no objection to the construction of any religious institution, the party has strongly objected to its naming, calling Humayun Kabir's rhetoric "the language of Muhammad Ali Jinnah".
"We have clearly said build temples, mosques, churches and gurdwaras legally, on your own land, with your own community's funds. But what happened in Rejinagar was not religious devotion. It was a display of fundamentalist assertion under state patronage," BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari alleged.
