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ShareDuring her bitter battle with the Tata group and the CPM government in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee was supported by all manner of organisations, including the People's Front Against Police Atrocities.
There were suspicions then that the Front was an extreme left outfit that had joined hands with her, which she tacitly accepted. Those fears have proved correct -- the Front has declared it is now taking up arms. The hijacking of the Rajdhani Express for six hours in Midnapore by Maoists has further embarrassed her because she had initially claimed no extremist groups were involved.
The fight against the Maoists in West Bengal has become entangled in the political struggle between the CPM-led Left Front government and Trinamool Congress (TMC). Banerjee may have made common cause with the Maoists in her attempt to dislodge the Marxists from the Writer's Building in Kolkata but with every passing day, as the ultra-left groups become more brazen and audacious, that association is becoming counter-productive.
For one thing, it is against stated government policy. Second, the Maoists themselves are indulging in kidnappings and such like which cannot win her any friends. Banerjee may be happy to join hands with her enemy's enemy but the Maoists are no one's friends. Playing a game for short term political and electoral gains can prove fatal.
The hijacking of the New Delhi-Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani Express on Tuesday has exposed the dangers of such partisan politics. The incident was meant to prove that the Left Front government's writ does not run in the state and Banerjee immediately called for the imposition of President's Rule in Bengal. But that will not wash; her main task should be to protect the railways and the passengers and behave responsibly like a member of the Union government rather than as a partisan state level politician.
In the power tussle between Left Front and the TMC, the Maoists can play havoc with people's lives in the state. Even if Banerjee were to ride to power on the melee created by the Maoists, she will find it difficult to tame the extremists once she is in power herself.
It is the Left Front's failure to address the problems of poverty in rural Bengal and the tyranny of the Marxist cadres and that of the police. Both the Marxists and Banerjee will have to pull back by declaring a common front against the Maoists for the sake of West Bengal and its people.
