Unreasonable

Abhishek Banerjee

Open | 25 Jun, 2015

It is no secret that almost 35 per cent of India’s Members of Parliament have criminal cases registered against them, but seldom do they flaunt their roguish image in public. So last week, when a young Trinamool Congress MP climbed up on stage and threatened to brutally maim those who don’t toe his party’s line, he set off alarm bells everywhere. Less than a year ago, the party had to ‘forgive’ another MP, Tapas Pal, who had threatened to get women from the CPM raped.

On 22 June, when Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, claimed that his party had refused to bow down before the Modi Government, he could have stopped there. But rhetoric soon turned to hate speech as he launched into an offensive against anyone seeking to destabilise the TMC. “If you dare to show your eyes, we will gouge them out and throw them on the road. If you raise your hand, we will cut them off,” the All India Trinamool Youth Congress president ranted at a public meeting in Basirhat North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

The crude threat met with criticism from all quarters except the TMC, where Abhishek is regarded as Didi’s heir apparent. Falling back on the tired old trope of blaming the messenger.