In a shocking and tone-deaf response to the plights of Hindu families fleeing Islamist violence-hit Murshidabad, TMC government’s Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim chose to whitewash the alarming situation with astounding insensitivity.
Speaking to ANI on Monday, April 14, Firhad Hakim dismissed the growing concern. He brazenly claimed, “There is no such situation here. They are going from one part of Bengal to another. Bengal is safe, so they are migrating within the State.”
In his words, it was “just one incident” and “nothing to make a big deal out of.”
#WATCH | Kolkata | On Murshidabad exodus, TMC leader and West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim says, “They are migrating within Bengal only… Everything is alright… The situation happened, it happened… Though it is condemnable and police will uncover who was behind it…” pic.twitter.com/4KH5A5hLmv
— ANI (@ANI) April 14, 2025
Such remarks from a senior leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress are not only grossly irresponsible but also dangerously indifferent to the fears and suffering of those affected. The exodus of any community, due to fear or violence, cannot be trivialized as a mere migration within the state. For a public representative to exhibit such detachment from the ground reality raises serious questions about political accountability and moral leadership.
This is not the first time Firhad Hakim has courted controversy. In 2021, he was seen delivering a political speech inside a mosque during election season, blatantly violating the Model Code of Conduct. During the anti-CAA protests, rather than condemning violent mobs, Hakim referred to the agitators as “brothers” and resorted to abusive language toward central forces and political opponents. Most recently, his vision for Bengal’s future where “half the population speaks Urdu and recites poetry” is not only culturally reductive but showcase the level of minority appeasement the Mamta Banerjee’s TMC government has resorted to.
Murshidabad violence
Murshidabad district in West Bengal witnessed blood-chilling chaos on Friday, 11th of April as so-called protests against the recently passed Waqf (Amendment) Act turned violent. What began as post-Friday prayer gatherings soon spiraled into violence, with protesters torching vehicles, attacking trains, pelting stones at police, and vandalizing public infrastructure all under the pretext of dissent.
The violence was most intense in the Suti and Samserganj areas, where large mobs blocked National Highway-12, disrupted traffic, and brought normal life to a standstill. A police van carrying prisoners was attacked, and even railway stations weren’t spared. According to reports, over 5,000 people blocked train lines, pelted stones at carriages, and forced the rerouting or cancellation of key trains like the Kamakhya–Puri Express and Nabadwip Dham Express.
Police personnel were brutally attacked. Stones and even crude bombs were hurled at law enforcement. This wasn’t merely unrest, it was a calculated show of brute force by Islamists emboldened by years of Muslim appeasement by the ruling party.
Over 110 people have been arrested so far in connection with the Murshidabad violence, most of them from Murshidabad district alone. Internet services were suspended, and prohibitory orders remain in force. For over a decade now, Mamata has systematically cultivated a politics of blatant minority appeasement, where appeasement politics have trumped national interest, and lawbreakers find indirect sanction as long as they fit her vote-bank equation. Her government has turned a blind eye to growing Islamisation in pockets like Murshidabad, Malda, and Basirhat.
