Even so, what happened this very morning was highly unusual, even by the shocking campaign standards or the lack of them, prevailing at present.

On a particular TV channel - not one of the big ones - a well known anchor virtually ripped into CPI(M)”s feisty Minister Gautam Deb, during what was supposed to be an exclusive interview with the Minister’s opponent at Dum Dum constituency, Bratya Basu of the Trinamool Congress.

The anchor had good reason. For some time now, Deb has been attacking him and the owner of the targeted channel, (a chit fund organiser) personally, in his interviews with newsmen.

Sample bytes of Debspeak ran something like this: “Let the polls be over. These people will know there is something called the government in West Bengal. Never fear, we are forming the eighth Left Front. I declare, we will throw these people where they belong, the jail, including X (names the anchor). I have no quarrel with old established houses in Kolkata, they have been running papers and channels for decades now, their work is popular, even if they do not support us. But these fly-by-night chit fund operators, who suddenly buy channels and start newspapers and then attack us, are a different breed. Where do get this kind of money, to snap up good people from established houses to work for them, even as they cheat their contributors? We will throw them all into jail, just you wait…”

For good measure, Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta, liable to be remembered as the Finance Minister who brought the state close to bankruptcy, followed this up by writing to the centre on the issue of chit funds.

Even neutral observers are intrigued by these developments. To begin with, can any Minister intimidate anyone publicly in this manner, let alone during an election campaign? If a particular media house is guilty of any illegality or an infringement of established laws, it can be punished under the due process of the law. Why was the LF government inactive all these months and years? What kind of political culture permits a responsible Minister to threaten the targets of his ire on the unverified assumption that he and his party are sure to be re-elected? Do Election Commission guidelines permit a Minister to speak like this at election time? True, chit fund operations have sometimes been a nuisance, but then why had the state government not moved against them when they had been set up and continued their business?

Being adept in the art of divide and rule, the shrewd Minister was fulsome in his praise for the bigger fry ruling Kolkata media world, although his relations with them have been far from harmonious. But that did not prevent the affected channel blasting him with everything it had during this morning’s interview. The anchor dug up some skeletons in the Minister’s cupboard in the Rajarhat town land scam, where Deb had” by special order” allowed his wife a prize 3000 sq feet plot. He also allotted land to many other individuals and companies out of his discretionary “quota” although legally there is no sanction for anything like this! His TMC opponent, dramatist Bratya Basu, stuck more to the political side of his misdemeanour as a Minister and Left leader .The channel’s counterblast against Deb ended with an open challenge to the Minister to go ahead and do his worst.

This is the first time that such an open altercation has broken out between one particular Minister and a particular section of the media, in West Bengal. Both sides have personalised the norms of their bitter battle. As an observer puts it, ”It is only one more nail in the coffin as far as the present campaign is concerned. “ (IPA Service)