The Maoists usually need no excuse to create mayhem, but they have provided one anyway. While burning down Biramdih station in Purulia and making sure rail traffic on the crucial route came to a standstill in order to make their two-day economic blockade in the region a runaway success, the rebels have announced that their operation is intended to avenge the ‘genocide’ in Nandigram and to discourage special economic zones. This is not the first time that the Maoists have made trouble in Bengal. The horrific killing of a leading district unit member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Purulia early last year, followed by the guerrilla forays in Belpahari had already made evident that the rebels were making steady inroads into the state. The endemic poverty, the absence of employment opportunities and the lack of development in vast swathes of Bengal allowed the Maoists the chance to exploit local grievances and dig their heels in. Now a perfect opportunity has been provided by the discontent generated by the government’s drive for industrialization and the shameless politicization of the situation. A similar phenomenon is occurring in neighbouring Orissa and Bihar, where increased Maoist depredations and the projection of industrialization as the precursor to displacement are pushing the states into a deeper abyss of poverty and instability.

As in the case of all other such attacks, the carnage in Biramdih has caught the state administration off guard. It proves that despite the persistent threat of Maoist assaults, the state government is as yet unprepared to deal with the menace. Beyond Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar have still not figured out how best to deal with the problem, although they agree that well-coordinated, cross-border operations are the way out. However, the overwhelming local sympathy for the troublemakers will continue to be a problem. To cut that lifeline, the governments will have to look more keenly at their own shortcomings. This holds particularly true of a state like West Bengal, which still has a chance to halt the movement’s progress. But the responsibility for achieving that rests as much with the opposition parties, intent on exploiting the situation with the aid of the Maoists, as with the ruling dispensation. The opposition has already provided the rebels with their excuse. Unfortunately, these men always wrest a mile when yielded an inch.