Soft state,hard words

How much credibility does West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee think his state government now has? He might have been partly chastened by the storm of anger caused by the West Bengal governments decision to capitulate miserably to the CPI Maoist by accepting,on their terms,the release of a police officer they had kidnapped in a daring raid on a police station apparently in exchange for the government not opposing the release on bail of several prisoners accused of links to the Naxalites. But his response is truly laughable. The day after he surrendered to the Naxalites,he thundered angrily that he would not surrender to the Maoists. The day after they showed him who was boss,he declared that he would teach them a lesson. Does he even know how weak he now appears?

Bhattacharjee also took a moment to attack his home secretary,Ardhendu Sen,for reports that he had made an impolitic comparison between the swap and,among others,the Kandahar and Rubaiya Sayeed episodes. And yet,his words were revealing. Where Bengals top civil servant in charge of law and order apparently shrugged his shoulders and said that such things would happen,because India was a soft state,Bhattacharjee chose to take exception to Sen speaking out of turn. He did not engage with the accusation implicit in Sens words,a concern which all those who believe that the time has come for the state to re-impose its writ in Indias lawless interior must share. What people need is strong reassurance that the state it relies on for security is not weak,is not soft; but neither is Bhattacharjee willing to give either his states residents or those beyond that reassurance,nor is it the case that,even if he did,he would be believed.

The CM can say as much as he likes that the kidnapping was an exception,and that the next time the Naxalites had better watch out. Those watching will have been reminded of nothing so much as an indulgent,or weak,parent acting out fantasies of being in control of an impossible child. When a government faced by a major security crisis loses so completely its nerve,and the confidence of the people of India is so shaken about whether that government is up to even the most basic of the tough law-and-order decisions that are its constitutional preserve,then there are few alternatives left. The West Bengal government,and Bhattacharjee,must go. India has no place for the mouse that roared.