West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Friday displayed yet another instance of his penchant for unrestrained criticism of his opponents when he referred to intellectuals and civil society members in the state opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act as 'spineless, devils, and parasites'.
Ghosh was speaking at a gathering in Howrah when he lashed out at the anti-CAA public intellectuals in West Bengal. "The intellectuals who are opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act are spineless, they are devils and parasites," said the BJP leader.
Notably, Ghosh was on Thursday re-elected as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party's West Bengal unit for the second time and he has, since then, been virtually even more unrestrained in his desire to abuse opponents at will. Crossing all boundaries of civil discourse by a mile, Dilip Ghosh on Friday was particular in his contempt for public intellectuals in West Bengal.
"These parasite intellectuals have always had a good time living off of others. Where were you when our ancestors were persecuted along religious lines in Bangladesh? When their houses were burnt down, properties stolen, women raped, and crops damaged? No 'intellectual' had come down to the streets to protest against these things. These spineless devils live off of us and dare to oppose us," Ghosh said on Friday, from a stage arranged for the occasion of BJP's 'Jana Jagaran Yatra' in support of CAA.
The electocracy in West Bengal has long been mired by dirty politics, more specifically, ever since the BJP performed especially well from the state in the Lok Sabha polls last year, superseding most ex[pectations by a surprising margin. Since then, the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) have been involved in frequent violent feuds throughout the state, with leaders from both sides taking to unrestrained abuse of their respective opponents.
However, Dilip Ghosh has established himself as an undisputed hallmark in that style of politics. Throughout the past couple of months, he had repeatedly been heard taking to the absolute rhetoric of unrestrained abuse to slam his opponents, something he seems to enjoy popularity among his supporters for, as evident from his re-election. Recently, he had also sparked controversies by threatening to shoot down 'like dogs' those who damaged public property in the state.
For context, Dilip Ghosh, while addressing a public gathering in Nadia on Sunday, had said, "Uttar Pradesh government had not only booked such people but also lathi-charged and shot them like dogs. Similarly, we will also shoot, lathi-charge and book whoever destroys public property in the state."
Ghosh had raised questions on the identity of those who were destroying government property built on taxpayers' money. "Is it the father's property of those who are setting the public property on fire?" the state BJP chief had asked, adding, "They will come here, enjoy all the facilities and destroy the country's property. Is it their zamindari!"
However, after controversy sparked over these comments, MoS Babul Supriyo immediately took to damage control, saying that BJP governments in UP and Assam have 'never ever' resorted to shooting people for whatever reason whatsoever [sic].
