Proposal for Babri mosque foundation met with demolition threat
A Muslim legislator’s plan to lay a Babri mosque foundation in West Bengal prompts fierce backlash and demolition threats from senior BJP figures
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A Muslim lawmaker in eastern India has announced plans to lay the foundation for a new Babri Masjid in the state of West Bengal, prompting a wave of threats and hostile rhetoric from Hindu nationalist leaders — including a veteran BJP politician who played a key role in the 1992 demolition of the original Babri mosque.
Humayun Kabir, a legislator from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, said the foundation stone would be placed on December 6, the anniversary of the day the 400-year-old Babri mosque in Ayodhya was torn down by Hindu extremist groups.
According to Indian media, Kabir said community leaders would join the ceremony and that the project symbolizes a long-standing Muslim memory of a mosque many believe was unjustly taken away through majoritarian politics.
Kabir’s announcement triggered an immediate political offensive from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which glorifies the 1992 demolition as a historic victory and celebrates the Ram temple now standing on the ruins of the destroyed mosque.
BJP leaders in Delhi and Kolkata framed the proposal as an attack on Hindus, reviving long-used tropes that portray Muslim political participation as illegitimate.
Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar claimed the plan was meant to “intimidate Hindus,” while Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya escalated further, declaring that “no brick will be laid in the name of a foreign invader” and linking the issue to the BJP’s campaign against so-called “infiltrators,” a term frequently used against Indian Muslims.
But the most provocative response came from BJP veteran Uma Bharti — a central figure in the mobilization that led to the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid. In a post on X, she warned that any structure built in Babur’s name in West Bengal would “meet the same fate” as the demolished mosque, a remark widely read as an open threat of demolition.
The political reactions come as the Trinamool Congress prepares its annual December 6 rally in Kolkata, traditionally held to protest the Babri demolition. This year, the event has been handed to the party’s youth and student wings, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expected to address the gathering.
For many Muslims across India, the Babri Masjid remains more than a historical site — it symbolizes a turning point when the state and courts failed to protect minority rights.
The mosque’s demolition, followed decades later by a Supreme Court verdict granting the land to Hindu groups, is still seen by many as a defining moment of majoritarian ascendancy.
Kabir’s announcement, analysts say, taps into this collective memory. For a large segment of Indian Muslims, the idea of rebuilding the Babri Masjid — even symbolically or elsewhere — represents a refusal to accept the erasure of their heritage under rising Hindu nationalist politics.
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