Row erupts as Govt plans to shift mosque inside NSI airport

There was political controversy after the Government suspended indefinitely the offering of namaz at Bakra Mosque (Gouripur Jame Masjid), which is situated inside the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at Dum Dum in Kolkata.

Rejecting the Government’s claim that a running mosque inside an international airport and barely a few hundred metres from the runway with regular public access was a security concern, senior Trinamool Congress MP Sougato Roy on Monday said that he was always for doing things on the basis of consensus and not arbitrarily. “The fact is that they want to extend the runway… there is no question of security or safety … If at all a change has to take place, then let it be on the basis of consensus and not by force as this BJP Government is doing it,” Roy said, while there was no statement from the Left.

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had earlier said that it was indeed a security concern and the mosque should be shifted from the area “because nowhere you will find a public place inside an airport and so near the run way… this is a security sensitive issue… remember we are near international border … China and Bangladesh are nearby… an international airport which receives top VVIPs and dignitaries everyday besides handling scores of flights cannot be kept open like this for common entry… it has to be shifted from there because national security is supreme… National security and the security of the airport will gain priority over everything else… I cannot say more as a Chief Minister.”

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar too said that he had heard since his childhood that the runway of the airport could not be extended because the mosque came in the way. All this was because of appeasement politics.