Mamata Banerjee ended her 25 day long fast at the stroke of midnight on Thursday. After that, she was promptly admitted into the ICU of a private hospital in Kolkata, where she is on respiratory support and is being administered intravenous fluids to treat her dehydration, hypoglycaeamia and other nutritional disorders.

Now I do not mean to imply, like CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu did, that Mamata Banerjee’s fast was just an “outlandish drama” or that Mamata had no ideological basis in going on a fast. These issues are up for debate.

But I wonder if a person on a prolonged fast, who is all but unconscious and on life support systems, takes a decision to end the fast based on his/her political or moral ideals or is it just the primal instinct to survive that prompts him/her to end the fast!!

Any ideas?