The Maoists attempted by far their most audacious hijack drama by holding up the Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express near Jhargram. Fortunately, it ended soon without any harm to passengers; the attackers melted away, but not before making their point about the release of Chhatradhar Mahato. With their recent barbarity, anything could have happened. But there is a lesson here for both the government and the Maoists. The government must tighten its security apparatus for it is dealing with a ruthless outfit. Maoists must realise that they are fast losing whatever public sympathy they may have had. The Union home minister has made it clear that the government is prepared to go more than half way to address grievances provided there is a matching response. The ball is clearly in the Maoists’ court.

— H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana

Mysore

The audacity of the Maoists and their tribal allies in holding up a Rajdhani was astonishing. They will take strength from this and perpetrate similar acts in the future. The Railways have no security at stations and on trains worth the name; the Naxalites clearly picked a soft target. It would make sense for Mamata Banerjee to enhance security of trains, particularly of those passing through the “Red Corridor”. Thankfully, there was no loss of life in this case. But we will have to anticipate this now and factor it into the security system.

— S. Kamat

Goa

Why they won

This refers to ‘Maximum city distractions’ by Vinay Sitapati (IE, October 27). The main reason why the Congress-NCP won is that the Muslim voter, whom the Congress had alienated during the ’90s, returned to the party to back it soundly. Further, the disunity among Ambedkar’s followers forced many of their voters to opt for the Congress-NCP. So the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance had a 20 per cent deficit to start with. Maharashtra may not have an independent OBC party like the RJD, but since Mahatma Gandhi’s days, the Congress was virtually a non-Brahmin party like Kamaraj’s Tamil Nadu Congress. The Sena-BJP had no chance of defeating this social base. As for “poor governance”, the Sena-BJP had not earned any praise for good governance either. As for the Left, they lack the money power indispensable for winning elections. But for the farm-loan waivers scheme and the NREGS, the Congress-NCP could have lost the election.

... contd.