Kolkata: The Hindus and Muslims are always portrayed as worst enemies of each other. However, as a shift from usual hate stories surrounding the two, this year, Muslims in West Bengal’s Kharagpur cancelled their Muharram procession all because they wanted to save the money for the treatment of a Hindu neighbour, a cancer patient.
According to a Hindustan Times report, a local club which organises Muharram procession in Kharagpur’s Puratan Bazar, raised around Rs 50,000 every year for the celebration and this year the amount will go to Abir Bhunia, who is suffering from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Bhunia, a mobile recharge shop owner needs Rs 12 lakh for a treatment that includes bone marrow transplantation. He is undergoing chemotherapy at Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre.
“Muharram processions can be organised every year. But we have to save the life first,” Amjad Khan, secretary of Samaj Sangha, which organises procession is quoted in Hindustan Times.
In another incident reported from a village named Sunur, about 125 kms from Kolkata, drummers (dhakis) of a local Durga puja beat the drums for a Muharram procession, when those hired for the tazia procession did not turn up.
Recently, media reports suggested there was possibilities of disturbance between the Hindus and the Muslims in West Bengal after the Chief Minister ordered that Durga idol will not be taken for immersion on Dashami as the day coincides with Muhurram.
Last week, the Calcutta high court cancelled the West Bengal government’s decision to restrict the immersions.
However, people from Bengal have shown that land of Ravindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda has no room for hatred.
