Social unrest is known to manifest itself as problems of law and order. But the reverse can also be true: sometimes, politically inspired violence seeks the cover of socio-economic grievances. Maoist outlaws who went on the rampage in the Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district of West Bengal, carrying out murderous attacks on workers of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) and destroying their houses and party offices, were looking to settle political scores in t he guise of protesting ‘police atrocities.’ Using the neighbouring State of Jharkhand as the base, they established a reign of terror and drove out security personnel and CPI(M) workers and sympathisers. With tribal folk as a human shield, they have now sought to create ‘liberated zones’ in the district. The offensive, timed to take advantage of the electoral debacle of the CPI(M) in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, would not have been possible without the support of the main opposition party, the Trinamool Congress. Either directly or indirectly, the Police Santrosh Birodhi Janashadharaner Committee or the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities, which spearheads the agitation, has drawn sustenance from the opportunism of the Trinamool Congress, and its junior partner in the State, the Congress.
It is no surprise that the Trinamool Congress led by the mercurial Mamata Banerjee, which has the single-point agenda of undermining the CPI(M) in every conceivable way, takes such short-sighted positions on vital issues. Less explicably, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre took a highly coloured view of the extremist violence. Parties, at their own risk of being found out by the people, may play political games at every opportunity. But those in responsible positions in government, including Ms Bannerjee, are duty-bound to uphold the rule of law. From the very beginning, instead of extending all possible help to the West Bengal government to end the extremist violence, the Centre has been putting the entire onus on the State. True, the Left Front government and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were distressingly slow to wake up to the crisis. But the Union government, which sees the Maoist upsurge as a national security threat elsewhere in the country, has been quite happy to let the Left Front government struggle with a difficult situation. The thinking seems to be that it should be made to pay the political costs of quelling the Lalgarh revolt, and it may even be a case of hoping: the bloodier, the better. The situation in West Midnapore is too serious to allow for such crass politicking. The Manmohan Singh government must not lose any more time in coming to the aid of West Bengal’s Left Front government in tackling the Maoists, and their surrogates. Else there will be a heavier cost to pay.
It is no surprise that the Trinamool Congress led by the mercurial Mamata Banerjee, which has the single-point agenda of undermining the CPI(M) in every conceivable way, takes such short-sighted positions on vital issues. Less explicably, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre took a highly coloured view of the extremist violence. Parties, at their own risk of being found out by the people, may play political games at every opportunity. But those in responsible positions in government, including Ms Bannerjee, are duty-bound to uphold the rule of law. From the very beginning, instead of extending all possible help to the West Bengal government to end the extremist violence, the Centre has been putting the entire onus on the State. True, the Left Front government and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee were distressingly slow to wake up to the crisis. But the Union government, which sees the Maoist upsurge as a national security threat elsewhere in the country, has been quite happy to let the Left Front government struggle with a difficult situation. The thinking seems to be that it should be made to pay the political costs of quelling the Lalgarh revolt, and it may even be a case of hoping: the bloodier, the better. The situation in West Midnapore is too serious to allow for such crass politicking. The Manmohan Singh government must not lose any more time in coming to the aid of West Bengal’s Left Front government in tackling the Maoists, and their surrogates. Else there will be a heavier cost to pay.
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