Slander? No, silly! It motivates footsoldiers

KOLKATA: Md Salim wants to avenge Trinamool-sponsored terror inch by inch. Anubrata Mondal wants to strip and tonsure him. Abdur Rezzak Mollah knows Roopa Ganguly's length of cigarettes. Anwar Khan prescribes `joota' treatment for EC... Mud-slingling has reached scary proportions this poll season and with elections on, there's more to come. But for academics and psychiatrists, who observe social behaviour patterns in terms of linguistics and colletive psychology , the plate is already full and any more will be hard to digest.
Social observers say political sledging is not new but what used to happen occasionally earlier is now routine.This is part of a calculated political matrix that perhaps has its roots in social media trolls, they say . Trolls are encouraged by political parties and those behind the trolls enjoy a lot of fanfare that acts as a boost, feels linguist Probal Dasgupta.
Jadavpur University linguist Kunal Chattopadhyay feels there is a rhetoric of intolerance all around and this gets reflected in the speech of leaders."I think this is considered to be part of one's oratorial skills these days, something that helps to connect with the hoi polloi. Leaders set the trend by speaking a certain lingo, they are surrounded by psychophants who praise the leader for showing such guts. They talk in a kind of frenzy and the language used is very different from the average language that they otherwise use in everyday life," he said. The talkshows on television are a case in point, he says. "The feverish pitch that even party supporters reach while arguing their case clearly shows that such language ups the TRP ," he argues.
Psychiatrists think that today , there is a craze for cheap entertainment and abusive language provides such entertainment. "When leaders speak, they work up a frenzy when logic or even rationality is lost.They see a sea of people whom they try to excite and when they see this palpable excitement they lose control," said psychiatrist J Ram.
Some psychiatrists like Amarnath Mullick feel that politicians move openly with criminals and patronize them."This shows the class of people they have to be-friend. If you have to successfully communicate with such people, you have to consciously let go of refined speech," Mullick added.