File photo of women celebrating the passage of Women's Reservation Bill by the Parliament. (Express Photo by Deepak Joshi) 4 min read Apr 28, 2026 05:12 PM IST First published on: Apr 28, 2026 at 05:12 PM IST 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.…