The heckling of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee during the latter’s visit to Sonarpur is a stark reminder that fear has an expiry date. For years, West Bengal’s politics has been defined by intimidation. First the Communist, and later during Mamata Banerjee’s TMC regimes, the state’s political discourse has been overwhelmingly accompanied by violence, cadre dominance, partisan policing and a culture in which dissenters were expected to keep their heads down and their

Artists perform during a BJP roadshow for filing of nomination papers in Kolkata on Thursday . | Pic: PTI New Delhi: On the political landscape of West Bengal, the celebration of democracy often descends into blood-stained imagery. Elections, which ought to embody the spirit of civic rights, frequently emerge instead as violent expressions of fear, retribution, and the assertion of dominance. The most distressing aspect of this reality is that ordinary citizens, especially wo