The twin attacks on Pathankot and Malda need to be seen as well calculated attempts to test the logistical capacity of the Indian state system to respond to Jihadi assaults. While an analysis of Pathankot incident is beyond the scope of this article, the Muslim mob violence in Malda was just another successful attempt at consolidating the Islamic support base. The attack was also an attempt at terrorising Hindus, many of whom are refugees who had fled unending anti-Hindu violence and persecution in East Pakistan / Bangladesh.The bogus claim by the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee to project it just as a clash between the BSF and the local people is as ridiculous as by those Pakistanis who seek to show the Pathankot attack as a stage by Indian security forces!While many “secular” leaders like Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal feigned total ignorance of the wanton act of Muslim mob violence, for other “secularists” mob violence, terrorisation of Hindus, molestation of Hindu women, desecration of Hindu temples, destruction of police vehicles and properties were justified, because the mob of 1.5 lakhs Muslims were protesting against alleged blasphemy! Were they suggesting that the laws of the Shariat were applicable here?Malda, incidentally has been under Islamic aggression since the invasion by Bakhkiyar Khilji and is now surrounded by desecrated Hindu temples turned into mosques. The declining Hindu population and its Muslim majority status add to the overall scenario of gloom.If the Muslims in Malda could go on a rampage against a statement of one Hindu from UP - that too in response to vulgar comments of Azam Khan, for which he is already in jail, the question arises, if a Hindu mob violence of such scale targeting Muslims would have been abetted by the administration. Would they have been allowed to protest against filthy pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses by MF Hussain and their mockery in many films produced by Muslim Bollywood stars? Remember what happened to Kamal Hssan’s film!Moreover, to call it as the handiwork of Muslim fringe was unconvincing. The most successful demonstrations of Muslim politics has been achieved by organised Muslim mob violence – whether it was the Moplahs of Kerala, Direct Action on streets of Calcutta and Dhaka (16 Aug 1946) or the Noakahli pogrom. To compare this to a few stray Hindu voices critical of Islamic practices and put them in the same category as the Malda mayhem is absurd and mean.Malda is just the latest in the chain of organised Muslim mob violence against Hindus of West Bengal, aided and abetted by the TMC administration after Deganga (2010) Canning (2013), Nadia (2015), and various other places in the state (at least 50 in recent times). These attacks have been kept under wraps by the Bengal’s Jihad-friendly “secular” politicians, media and its spineless Buddhijibs or ‘intellectuals’.The concocted image of a dominant intolerant majority and suffering minority, may have had some meaning elsewhere in the world, but has no meaning for India and particularly West Bengal. Hindus have suffered at the hands of a much smaller number of Muslims for millennia, having been invaded, ruled and partitioned by a smaller minority.This also exposes the fallacy of another claim by Bengal politicians and their supporters in the intelligentsia that Bengal was non-communal. Actually, Bengal has been a happy hunting ground for all anti-Hindu forces culminating in the disastrous partition of Bengal and the on-going religio-ethnic cleansing in Bangladesh. Several districts of West Bengal, including Malda, which had a Hindu majority population in 1947 are now Hindu minority areas and this must be cause for concern for all Indians. Dangerous Jihadi elements, now on the run in Bangladesh, have found a safe haven in TMC ruled West Bengal.While Malda was burning, Mamata Banerjee played host to a Pakistani singer. This was just like rubbing salt to the wounds. The Central government would do well to conduct an enquiry into the Malda incident at the earliest.(The writer is member Indian Council of Historical Research. Views are personal. Email: saradindu48@gmail.com ENDS