Even as shocked state viewers agreed that the no question could be more relevant, it seemed TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and her loyal minions like Derek O’brien were least bothered, far less abashed. The MP's 'speech' might have shocked people from Kashmir to the Vivekananda Rock. It even invited a rare rebuke from a UN-based HR agency .But Ms Banerjee and her loyal hordes who constitute the TMC, have banished all sense of shame, three years into their tenure. 'Sadly, the answer to the question posed on national TV is – yes, West Bengal can sink lower still! Just look at the TMC's response to the issue,' said an observer.

As always, the Chief Minister brazened it out. She blamed the media for blowing up 'a little incident,' to malign her Government, which was never praised for 'the good things it has done.' This was nothing short of a carefully planned conspiracy. Pal had expressed his apology following an instruction, so what more could be done? 'What do you me to do, kill him?” asked the chief Minister of newsmen. 'Pal has apologised, matter ends there,' announced O’brien with the finality of a judge delivering a verdict.

And it is not as though the state police are not looking into the matter. In TMC- run West Bengal, as the feisty chief Minister solemnly reminds people, 'The law takes its own course.' The police therefore, are' seriously probing' who handed over the offending CDs to the news channels and how much money had changed hands. 'Rich TV channels think nothing of spending between Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 for such material,' said the Chief Minister, who seemed to be knowledgeable about such transactions.

By the way, although Pal had delivered three incendiary hate speeches, urging upon followers to rape, loot and kill in Nadia district on June 16, the highly law abiding police in West Bengal has not yet had the time to question him ! No wonder, Pal had thundered, 'You people kill, burn down the houses of all opponents, I will send my boys to commit rape against them — and I, Tapas Pal, will see how police dare take any action against you'.

BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya discerned a worrying pattern in the mounting spiral of TMC-sponsored political violence. 'It all started with Ministers like Jyotipriya Mallik and others who asked for a public boycott of the CPI(M) , who were described as lepers. MP Subhendu Adhikary went one better, saying the CPI(M) and other opponents were cobras that needed to be weeded out urgently. The Chief Minister did not utter a word of condemnation. Instead, she added to rising political tensions by never inviting opposition figures to attend official functions held in opposition-held constituencies, extending the leper metaphor into the political arena.

'The message spread to lower party levels, destroying the fabric of rural politics. Birbhum Panchayat leader Anubrata Mondal, protected like tigress by the chief Minister, openly asked people to burn down the houses of all opponents and to throw bombs against the police if they intervened. Another district TMC leader, Manirul Islam, openly bragged how he trampled to death three CPI(M) supporters four years ago and threatened his present-day opponents. The Election Commission’s moves to haul up Mondal never materialised, as police 'could not find him. Given this background and the CM's public support to Mondal and Manirul, who attended public rallies with the police standing guard during elections, the message that if you belong to the TMC you are above the laws and the Constitution of India , has gone deep,' says Bhattacharya.

One analyst pointed to another menacing, if somewhat unappreciated, aspect of the threats publicly aired by Pal, Mondal and others. According to him,' At first, Mondal and others referred only to the CPI(M) leaders and supporters as their targets. This deserved condemnation, but it could have been argued that the CPI(M) too had been guilty of many excesses during the 34 years of Left tenure, with the police looking the other way.

As the police started to behave like TMC cadres, cracking down on and arresting only opposition workers, TMC cadres got bolder. They declared war against the Congress too, and currently, are attacking BJP supporters too. With this difference that they are now a little scared about attacking the BJP too much, for fear of central intervention. But notice how first Mondal and now Pal, are using the expression 'birodhi' (opponents) as the target to attack, not specifying which party they belonged to. This means that anyone who criticises the TMC, be it in an article or a TV programme is fair game, because any writer critical or non supportive of the TMC is a 'birodhi”, whose house can be attacked, his female relatives raped and humiliated, his property looted and burnt , followed(or preceded as the case may be, ) by his own murder, with the police never being involved in the matter at all, not even afterwards – a truly frightening prospect.... If this is not Fascism, then what is?' he asked.

If this sounds hysterical, listen to ex CPI(M) MP Sujan Chakravarty. 'Within 10 days of Mondal’s appeal to TMC cadres to attack the police and burn down the houses of TMC dissidents, a CPI(M) panchayat leader in Birbhum was killed and his house ransacked ! NO arrests made, of course. And TMC dissident Sagar Ghosh was killed only four days after Mondal’s speech,' he said.

The same deadly sequence of murder and mayhem has begun after Pal’s June 14 exhortation as well. A girl participating in a chat show on a local TV channel recalled seeing a TMC cadre brandishing a rifle, going to an opponent’s house and bring out at gunpoint the younger brother of his target, who was not at home, in Nadia district. Needless to say, the brother has not been seen since. The story has not appeared in the local media yet. This may comfort the TMC and its chief Minister who may feel that not all state-based media is guilty of an anti-government conspiracy. (IPA Service)