Case History I
I am traveling from Bishnupur, Dt. Bankura, West Bengal to Arambagh in Hoogly District. The bus is packed with local youth returning home from their colleges. In the seat behind me two salwar clad girls are whispering about the need for Maoist action in the rural hinterlands of Bengal. What follows is from memory:

People are eating ants’ eggs, you know.
Really! Where?
Midnapore, Shalboni jungles…
The CPI (M) will do nothing for us…the Comrades are only interested in their own farming and own jobs. We need a Prachanda here.
Who is Prachanda?
You don’t know? The Nepali Naxalite who ousted King Gyanendra. We need more Che Guevaras…

Case History II

Somen, hitherto unknown to the public is waiting for a train in the semi-urban northern fringes of Kolkata. He is just another unshaven middle-aged man burdened with the woes lower-middle class woes. The Kolkata Police arrest him. He is now in police custody. Surreal, but true. This is the leader of the Bengal Maoists; Himadri Sen. He is the mastermind behind attacks against CPI (M) leaders in the West Bengal. He has orchestrated countless kangaroo courts of CPI (M) cadres and policemen, ordering some to be summarily executed. This is the man who liaisons with the Jharkhand Naxalites, the Orissa Naxalites and even the Andhra Naxalite leaders. He has told the police that Bengal should ready herself for the true Marxist ‘Cultural Revolution’. Only thing, the color of this revolution will be red.

Marxists boast of rejecting idolatries, both of any unseen God or of clay representations of that Power. Yet ironically they idolize Marx, Lenin and Stalin. Marxism is the new religion of the twenty-first century. It is then natural that it will have its zealots and fanatics. These new breeds of murderers seek refuge in the violent Mao Tse – Tung. The latter used unprecedented violence in China to bring her under Communist control. In the Bengal of the middle of the last century, Charu Majumder came under the spell of this deadly ideology. Our Maoists are all Majumder’s followers. They believe that India is under the thrall of the moneyed bourgeoisie who will never relinquish power to the poor. Only violence can free the poor from their vicious entrapment in endless cycles of poverty. This is just a façade. They are only divisive and destructive.They are the ones who turned Nandigram into a bloodbath and later blamed the ruling CPI(M).

One last consideration:

Why are young people willing to be seduced by this violent ideology? The reason is simple: in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal meritocracy has given way to mediocracy. In all these states the Public Distribution System is in ruins. Indeed, people are living like animals in the rural, uncultivable areas here. The unique victims are the Adivasi populations who often have no access to basic education. Yet violence is not the solution. The existing State Governments need to take a realistic stock of the ground realities. Otherwise Maoists and other terrorists are here to stay. In the meanwhile, West Bengal can brace for more retaliatory attacks in the wake of Somen’s arrest.