The phone rang. Deep in a cramped stall, a voice said “Namaste” before muttering threats of bombs. Three men in foreign accents warned him he’d be blown up. They even sent a video of a gun, eyes narrowed, eyes empty. He was left trembling.
Sao, a 40‑year‑old jhalmuri seller, could hardly keep his composure after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped at his stall in Jhargram during the West Bengal campaign. The small pick‑up of spicy corn a few minutes after the PM’s arrival turned into a viral moment that drew the national spotlight. That spotlight, a month later, feels like a spotlight on his life.
He says the calls have come every day for the past few days. “I hear ‘Are you alive or dead?’ Are you listening to the beep? I get WhatsApp messages that say I’ll be killed in a bomb,” he told IANS. He’s worried about himself and his family. Hero or target? The line has never been silent.
West Bengal’s election season has been anything but calm. The state, a battleground for political wind‑turbines, has seen the northern and southern parties fiercely dent each other’s headlines. With rising rhetoric about foreign influence, cross‑border drama seems less a fringe and more a reality. These threats feel like a new flashpoint, even if they’re coming from unknown phone numbers.
Law enforcement has no official reply yet. The vendor’s small shop sits on a side lane, where the phone’s ring can be heard over the market’s hum. The authorities must decide whether to investigate the numbers or dismiss them as junk calls from a careless harasser. The questions grow: can a street vendor live in silence in a politically charged country?
Will a jug of spicy corn end up being the next casualty in a game of geopolitical intimidation?
