Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, (aka, Mamata Bano) has done it again.

In order to please her minority vote bank, who helped her gain power, she is exploring new avenues in areas that no one else had imagined before. After doling out special salaries for Imams and muezzins  from  the ‘secular’ government fund, she now announces a hospital, specifically  for minorities only (Wonder whether a external genitalia examination to ascertain religion, would be a prerequisite for an admission for a heart attack or stroke ).

The people who should care, the Hindu Bengali bhadraloks and intellectuals, are least concerned. The politicians / oppositions are mumbled in their protest, in fear of squandering even the minute fraction of muslim vote that they are blessed with. The West Bengal media, as is true in most places in India, has long had the undeclared tradition of not speaking against minority interest, in order to keep the torch of secularism burning.

One dreads to comtemplate the day when Muslim population in West Bengal will attain that critical mass (they are already majority in several districts) where they can dictate terms again. If history is to be believed, the day is not far off when Hindus of West Bengal will travel the path of Kashmir or Assam (as in recent times). They have already forgotten the atrocities of Direct Action Day or the Noakhali massacres. The whole history of the partition of Bengal or the dwindling Hindu population of Bangladesh, before or after independence, does not bother them. They have acquired this immense ability to forgive and forget, to bury their head in sand and believe that the world around is glorious.

What the Congress and Left front have done before and what Mamata Banerjee-lead Trinomool Congress is doing now is accelerating the process to a stage beyond retrieval.

(for those who can read Bengali – get the full news at http://www.anandabazar.com/archive/1120828/28swasth1.html)