The powers of a modern State may mean nothing if a government fails to use them with determination and a sense of purpose. The daring Maoist attack in West Midnapore, which killed 24 policemen, shows how inadequately prepared the State is to fight the rebels. The battles against the Maoists in other states and the insurgent groups in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast leave little room for doubt that these will be hard and long. But Monday’s attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles camp raises serious questions about the anti-Maoist operations in West Bengal. It is no coincidence that the attack on the EFR camp, which was located in a crowded marketplace, came barely a week after the Union home minister, P. Chidambaram, had announced Operation Green Hunt. That the battle plan was seriously flawed was evident from the absence of the chief ministers of Jharkhand and Bihar from the meeting Mr Chidambaram held in Calcutta. Clearly, the time for prevarications is over. If a state government lacks the political will to take on the rebels, the Centre must step in more effectively. Law and order may be the jurisdiction of a state government, but New Delhi cannot afford to allow that constitutional provision to be a handicap in the fight against what the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, considers the “greatest threat to India’s internal security”.

The Maoists have used the debate over development and the rivalries among political parties to their advantage. This is no surprise, as rebels, especially of the extreme left, are known to try and exploit the “contradictions” within the ruling classes. And the Maoists have shown how they can benefit from the debate over development within the civil society. Even the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, now admits to the failure of the 33-year rule of the Marxists to make a difference to the lives of the tribal people in many parts of West Bengal. So much needs to be done on a war footing to change this scenario. But there is absolutely no scope for making a fundamental mistake about the Maoists’ mission. They may have used the poverty in the tribal-majority regions, in West Bengal and elsewhere in India, in order to recruit cadre and set up bases. But overthrowing the democratic State is their ultimate goal. Foiling this design is crucial to both development and the future of democracy.