Using idiomatic language—or not—is a double-edged sword these days in India. Very few people know any language well enough anymore to cogently articulate all their thoughts. They flit from language to language, sometimes thinking of an idea or an argument in one language and then translating it mentally in order to express it in another one. As a result, not only do metaphors invariably get mixed up, but idioms are not understood correctly either.

The benefit of the latter, of course, is that the truly brazen can hide behind the word “idiom" to get away with, well, (advocating) murder. Such as the Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra, who planted herself firmly back in the social media limelight by asserting in literally translated English to Bangla that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s head “should be cut off and put on the table" for allowing infiltration from across the Bangladesh border.

There is one Bengali phrase that does indeed use the words “matha kata" (literally “head cut"), but that is usually preceded by the word “lojjaye" (in embarrassment), and when enunciated together, it means being mortified or ashamed. Moreover, it is always used in a specific way, with the person meaning he/she was embarrassed by a situation (Amar lojjaye mata kata gelo) or that someone is or should have been embarrassed (Onar lojjaye matha kata jawa uchit).

Unluckily for the voluble and media-savvy MP from Krishnanagar, her exact and quite unidiomatic comment in Bangla is now immortalised in countless video clips. She........

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