The Trinamool Congress has stood up for its senior Minister Firhad Hakim for calling upon the 'minorities' to grow and outnumber the "majority" community so that "one day we can not only become majority but even more than majority."

Though the opposition parties have vehemently opposed Hakim who has still not explained his statement senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said that "he is being misinterpreted by some people why a majority of them have understood the real meaning of what he has said."

Holding the bat for Hakim --- who apart from being a senior Cabinet Minister is also the Mayor of Kolkata --- Ghosh said that "what he meant is that the minorities (read Muslims) through their effort will one day contribute immensely in the uplift of the society and nation building ... which is a fairly good statement and needs no censor."

Hakim while delivering a speech in a social gathering said "while in Bengal, we are 33 per cent in the entire country we are 17 per cent which is why we are called a minority… But we don't want to be called minorities," adding to a big round of applause that "we can become not only majority but even bigger than that if we have the mercy of Allah."

Though he said that the minorities should work hand-in-hand with the other communities for the cause of nation building he clearly inspired them to achieve the majority status so that "we can wield so much power we don't have to hold candlelight marches for justice … and that so that our voices are automatically heard, and calls for justice answered."

Curiously there was no comment on the issue from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee whose office remained as silent as it was when Hakim during an earlier occasion asked the members of his community to work for a situation when "all those who 'unblessed' have not received the mercy (rehmat) of Allah will one day be enfolded in our path."

Referring to Hakim's remarks as "dangerous" Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari said, "some minority people have been asking the minority people to labour hard to get better government jobs including those of judges etc but this mentality is quite dangerous … if they become 50 percent or more then the Constitution will stop working … like in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan … they will unleash the Sharia laws."

Bengal BJP president and Union Minister Sukanto Majumdar said that Hakim's speech smacked of Abrahamic religious trends. "They wanted to occupy a region and make it as their religion liked it to be" Majumdar said wondering why the Chief Minister who was talking big on Bangladesh a few days ago was silent on Hakim's statements.

Another senior BJP leader Sajal Ghosh said that the Muslims can walk Hakim's talk by "replicating the Great Calcutta killings of 1946 or by allowing mass infiltration from Bangladesh which his Chief Minister is doing for vote bank politics and third by subscribing to another TMC minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury who recently asked the Muslims to follow t he 'hum do humare chaar' (four children for every couple) plan … a time has come for the people to reply to this."

While BN Chakrabarty a famed political analyst wondered "why I did not die before having to encounter such a statement," the Left tended to look into it through a "larger conspiracy angle."

Condemning Hakim's statement CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said that it was a part of bigger ploy to polarize the people of Bengal. "they do not want the secular fabric of Bengal to stay … so he has made this remark … I don't think this statement has been made without the nod of RSS because such kind of statements will benefit them and the BJP the most in the present scenario … Firhad Hakim is not a minnow of a politician not to understand the political implication of this statement in the elections … it is clear that he has been making such statements as per some instructions."