Abhishek Banerjee

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.