When terror is precision-timed for symbolism, careful scrutiny of the site and the situation is revealing. It reveals the terrorist’s agenda, and it also yields vital clues on how to beat that design. So it is with the synchronised blasts at Varanasi on Tuesday. Tuesday is the biggest evening of the week at Sankatmochan temple, by all accounts the third most important temple in Varanasi. Varanasi itself is India in microcosm. Its chroniclers call it the living text of Hinduism, and various faiths and reform movements have been accommodated in its sacred geography. To strike violence in Varanasi is to put all of India on alert, to put the idea of India to the test. It’s such a blatant bid to invite backlash that any attempt to fuel communal passions would be tantamount to self-indictment.

That’s why the entire political establishment needs to be extra cautious. That’s why there is no place for reckless agendas, for distorting dissent into divisiveness and for looking at social policy, even strategic decision-making, through the communal or sectarian prism. From a UP minister’s open call to murder—endorsed by the state government—to the VHP’s description of the Varanasi attack as being a “war against the nation,” such rhetoric only plays into the hands of those who have blood on them.