When actor-turned-Trinamool MP Tapas Pal recently spewed venom, publicly threatening that he would have the women kin of the opposition raped by his "boys", he was only verbalizing a trend of physical violence in West Bengal that is now several decades old. The latest trend of violence can be traced to the late 1990s when Mamata Banerjee emerged as a strong opposition leader who was ready to take on the dominance of the ruling Left Front. From 1998, when she founded the Trinamool party, violence began to spiral, culminating in Nandigram in 2007 when 14 people were killed in police firing and countless others in clashes between supporters of the Left and the Trinamool. The violence, the clashes culminated in the Left losing power. But Mamata Banerjee, after coming to power, is continuing the trend set by the Left, say most analysts.
