Verbal abuse of political opponents part of a larger malaise

Substituting shrillness of tone for substantive arguments, personal attacks rather than promoting policy critique go counter to promoting civility in public life

So long as Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma kept a low profile, he was seen as an emerging leader from Assam. However, with political success he has turned into a profligate commentator and revealed himself as incapable of civilised political discourse.

His comments on Rahul Gandhi’s parentage normally should not be worthy of public comment except that such mud-slinging is indicative of a larger malaise emerging in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Much in the same mode Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath uses street lingo threatening to extinguish his opponents in the state assembly election on counting day March