After the heated debates over the Women’s Reservation Bill or Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam (2023), one would expect the national conversation to revolve around representation, policy, and structural reform. Instead, what has unfolded is a spectacle that is loud, predictable, and deeply unsettling. While the ruling establishment links the bill to delimitation and the opposition claims authorship of the 2023 push, the discourse has slipped far below the dignity of democratic engagement.

As the political temperature rises in West Bengal, a disturbing trend has resurfaced with renewed aggression: The vilification of women leaders. The recent circulation of demeaning and sexualised caricatures of Mamata Banerjee is not satire; it is character assassination dressed up as humour. It is not a political critique; it is misogyny, unfiltered and unapologetic.

Reports by organisations such as UN Women and Amnesty International have repeatedly highlighted how women in politics face disproportionate abuse online, with sexualised trolling, threats, and defamation forming a significant portion of attacks. A 2023 study by the Observer Research Foundation noted that Indian women........

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