Kolkata:
No cartoons on social networking sites, no protests, and now, no marriage to anyone remotely connected to the Communist Party of India (CPM). The Trinamool Congress' list of don'ts just got longer, with West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriya Mallik telling party workers that theirdaughters marrying into CPM homes is not ok, mingling with CPM workers is not ok, not even for a cup of tea.
"Don't give your daughters to CPM homes in marriage. Our workers must make sure that nobody in their family enters into any marital relationship with any CPM leader or supporter," Mr Mallik said at a gathering of about 2000 Trinamool workers at Habra on Sunday evening.
Mamata's Banerjee's minister also said, "We have vowed to boycott the CPM socially...Don't mingle with the CPM. Don't sit next to CPM workers. Don't even talk to them if you meet them at a local
chai (tea) shop."
Mr Mallik made a virtue of learning "to hate the CPM", saying that CPM workers were "dirty things" and that the Trinamool had to take "all necessary steps to isolate the party that has destroyed growth in West Bengal for the last 34 years."
Mamata Banerjee took over as Chief Minister of Bengal last year after winning an election she fought on an avowed agenda of decimating the Communists. That has been her political
raison de etre for her entire career.