When BJP’s tribal MP Khagen Murmu’s car was similarly pelted with stones on Monday, it felt less like a new eruption and more like a grim continuation. The visuals of blood-soaked Murmu fetched reactions, built an one-sided social media outage, triggered some local protests, a condemnation message from PM Modi, and a counter from the state’s CM Mamata Banerjee. Meanwhile, the state’s violent underbelly has always been waiting for the next trigger.

The mob is Bengal’s oldest political instrument. It is neither spontaneous nor faceless. It has a lineage — from the pitchfork protests of the 1950s to the ‘para’ (locality) battles of the 1970s, from the Trinamool’s street wars of the 2000s to the BJP’s retaliatory processions of today. Bengal’s political vocabulary has always included one five-letter word – lynch.

The ruling........

© News18