It is a deja vu in high drama, a haunting echo of 2019, when Trinamool Congress claimed over a dozen deaths linked to ‘panic attacks’ after the BJP’s campaign promising to bring NRC and CAA to Bengal.

No official process had begun then either, yet fear seeped into public emotion. Six years later, the script remains uncannily familiar with the ruling party warning citizens of invisible threats, and the chief minister framing routine verification as potential victimisation.

But why does Bengal panic before the fact and the process? Why does the fear of enumeration turn fatal, and why is it always the state government that says people are terrified?

Because fear has been institutionalised. It is no longer an emotion, it is an instrument. For context, West Bengal witnessed a huge influx of migrants from Bangladesh in phases post independence, post partition and post formation of Bangladesh. Across North 24 Parganas, and in........

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