Public memory is short. Memory of unpleasant events is even shorter. Thus it is not surprising that a general amnesia seems to have descended on the harm that Naxalite violence did to West Bengal between 1967 and 1972, and the violence that was involved in suppressing the Naxalite movement. It is difficult to convey to those who were not around then the terror that stalked the state in those years. Today’s Naxalites and their covert and not so covert sympathizers should be reminded of those terrible years. On the one hand, there was the mindless attacks of the Naxalites aimed at the so-called “class enemies”. These were mostly rich peasants and landlords in the rural world; in cities and towns the targets were policemen and educational institutions, where libraries and laboratories were ransacked and set on fire. These activities produced an atmosphere of fear, and there were areas into which people did not venture after dark. On the other hand, there was the violence that the state used to quell the Naxalite movement. There were combing operations and police killings, and often innocent people were affected. The suppression was brutal, and in many areas of the state and the city of Calcutta, the air was filled with the smell blood and gun powder. Those were, by no means, happy days for West Bengal. The cycle of violence and irresponsible labour militancy combined to drive business away from the state.

West Bengal has just begun to come out of the darkness that had descended in the late Sixties. In the interim, many things have changed but the light might again be extinguished by a fresh cycle of violence in which today’s Naxalites are the principal agents. Both in Singur, and more recently in Nandigram, reports have shown that Naxalites are active in stopping the state from acquiring land required for new industrial investment. The state administration has used the police to contain the violence. There is always the fear that violence might erupt again. If it does, the administration will have very few options save the use of force. The consequences of this will not be pleasant. The perpetrators of the violence must ponder the consequences and behave with responsibility and within the norms set by democracy.

West Bengal cannot afford to enter another phase of violence since this will stop investors from putting their money in the state. Violence does not produce faith, which is essential for investment. The government must take all the necessary steps to create this faith among capitalists. It must ensure that it rises above all petty and sectional interests and takes and implements policies that are best for West Bengal. The state has suffered too long and needlessly because politicians have only thought of their own interests and the political mileage that they can derive from any given situation. West Bengal is poised at the end of one epoch and the beginning of another. The circumstances demand responsible action from all concerned.