India Uncut

For North Block, Madhuban may as well be on another planet. The Union home ministry’s responses to the curious incident that shook this small Bihar town on the Indo-Nepal border last week was so tame, so tepid, it could have been a teddy bears’ picnic. In actual fact, it was another signal that this country has got a serious problem of Maoist extremism on its hands and has no credible response to it. The impunity which marked the Madhuban raid that Maoists — possibly from Nepal — conducted, also indicates how emboldened they have become in recent times in the face of a comatose state.

Although the BJP is the party experiencing turmoil, the Congress should seriously begin to worry about its own future. On the surface, things seem well. It has no leadership crisis, no self-destructive rancor. The prime minister’s performance ratings are high and he is very difficult to attack personally. The Opposition is in disarray. UPA allies occasionally extract their pound of flesh, but none of them has an incentive to bring down the government immediately. The economy is holding steady. But the placid surface can barely disguise the Congress’s long term problem.