RETURN OF THE RABBLE-ROUSER

In retaining Dilip Ghosh as head of the state BJP, the party has signalled its intention to run a polarising election campaign in the state

- Romita Datta

If you thought Dilip Ghosh would pay the price for shooting off his mouth on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, think again. Ghosh, under whose watch the BJP notched a spectacular tally in the 2019 general election—18 of the state’s 42 seats and a 40 per cent vote share—was re-elected state BJP president on January 16.

Ghosh was roundly criticised within his own party for first calling CAA protesters “spineless devils and parasites” and then asking for them to be “shot like dogs”. The central leadership apparently cautioned him, the Union minister of state for environment, forests and climate change Babul Supriyo dissociated himself and his party from Ghosh’s comments while BJP state vice president Chandra Kumar Bose said “terror politics has no place in the country”. In fact, it was Supriyo who was being projected as the probable face of the CAA campaign in Bengal, even though he too found himself mired in controversy when he criticised a student online for tearing a copy of the CAA at her convocation in Jadavpur University and then told an Indian Muslim who questioned his reaction that he’d give him the answer after he had been “sent back to his own country”.