In bed with reds?

On the day after, the response from the Union home minister was chillingly familiar. Less than 24 hours after Naxalites took Jehanabad, free...

On the day after, the response from the Union home minister was chillingly familiar. Less than 24 hours after Naxalites took Jehanabad, freed their mates from prison and abducted members of a rival private army, Shivraj Patil said the government was focused on the safety of the kidnapped and on booking theculprits. Culprits, honorable minister, did you say culprits? On Sunday night, CPI Maoist cadres laid siege on a district headquarters in a state in the throes of a high-security election process. They brandished their ability to strike at will by blowing up the railway line, cutting phone and electricity lines for the duration of their operation and fleeing 8212; all those hundreds of them 8212; into the darkness of the countryside. They demand a label decidedly less innocuous-sounding than culprits. Reinforcements have been urgently requisitioned by the Bihar administration, but with Operation Jehanabad the Maoists have thrown down the gauntlet to the Centre.

It is not the first time they have done so. Over the year and a half since the UPA assumed office, Maoists have calibrated demonstrations of their increasing strength with alarming finesse. Last October, they came overground to talk peace with the newly installed Y.S.R. Reddy government, gaining a right to do so without being disarmed. In the following months, months in which security personnel lost to Naxal violence outnumbered those slain in fighting terrorism in J038;K, they gloated over the death of an SP, they murdered an MLA. In short, the Maoists hacked away at its desired Nepal-to-Nellore corridor by rendering more and more districts 8216;Naxal affected8217; 8212; by last count more than 150.

Patil has wisely retreated from his famous excuse that law and order is a state subject. But the Centre is still to show sufficient will to counter the Naxal challenge. Already it is no longer considered improper to ask whether the Congress is soft on the Naxals for electoral considerations. In dynasty8217;s birth anniversary week, they should recall Indira Gandhi8217;s firm response to Naxalites the first time round.