The azan was not heard at many mosques in Kolkata and neighbouring areas on Friday after loudspeakers were removed, according to worshippers and petitioners who have taken the matter to the Calcutta High Court. The state government denies ordering any removal.
Muslims in West Bengal say their position has become increasingly precarious. Large numbers once prayed in the streets on Fridays in Kolkata and nearby towns when mosques could not hold them; the BJP government led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has since stopped the practice. Worshippers now report loudspeakers being taken down from mosques. With the call to prayer not carrying, many said they had been unable to join prayers, and described an atmosphere of anxiety. BD Global Times could not independently verify the accounts.
An imam in Kolkata’s Park Circus said: “They are taking away the microphones and oppressing us in various ways. We will bear it all, because there is nothing else we can do. Saturday, Aug 15, is our Independence Day. I urge everyone to raise the national flag at their own home. Otherwise this government will very easily brand Muslims as traitors.”
The dispute has reached the Calcutta High Court, where a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Tapobrata Chakraborty and Justice Atarup Bandyopadhyay heard a public interest petition on Thursday.
Lawyer Kalyan Bandyopadhyay told the court that loudspeakers had been removed from about 4,000 mosques in the state with police assistance, on verbal instructions alone and without any written notice. Citing an earlier ruling by a bench of Justice Bhagwati Prasad Bandyopadhyay, he sought permission for loudspeakers to be reinstalled at all mosques, and asked why religious observance was being treated in what he called a partisan manner. He said at least 100 mosques in Champdani, in Hooghly district, might file similar applications.
The state’s additional advocate general questioned whether the case was maintainable. He said police had issued no instruction to remove loudspeakers, and that the petitioner had produced no specific evidence and named no officer who had done so. Despite the claim that 4,000 loudspeakers had been removed, he said, no imam had come forward to file a case. He asked the court to allow the state to set out its position rather than issue an interim order.
The acting chief justice asked for specific information to be submitted on which mosques in which districts had had loudspeakers removed. He also asked whether noise rules on the use of loudspeakers for the azan were being observed. The case is listed for further hearing on Aug 18.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report