A slain child lying amidst the wreckage of a bomb blast is the latest image of terror from Assam. It shows how insecure life in the troubled state has become. What is particularly galling is the impression that the authorities seem to accept their failure to tackle terror as a fact of life in Assam. Such an admission of failure can only worsen the common people’s sense of insecurity. It can even lead to the people losing faith in the State’s ability and political will to uphold the rule of law. What Assam’s chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, said immediately after the serial blasts in the state can hardly inspire the people’s confidence in the government’s ability to protect their lives. Clearly, the time has come for both New Delhi and Dispur to take an unambiguous stand on fighting terror. It is not enough to condemn the United Liberation Front of Asom or some other organization every time violence rocks the state. Given the authorities’ inability to prevent such incidents, their promises of punishing the guilty only add to the people’s frustration and anger. Mr Gogoi must admit his failure and reflect on the inadequacy of his strategy to fight the Ulfa.

He need not shut the door on negotiations with the rebels and completely reject a political solution to the problem of insurgency. But that does not mean his government should allow the Ulfa to hold the state to ransom and dictate terms for a peace process. If anything, wanton acts of violence in recent weeks should leave neither Mr Gogoi nor the Union government in any doubt about the Ulfa’s cynical game-plan. The outfit wants to make a point about its capability to strike at will. Worse still, it has no immediate plans to respond to any peace overture. Mr Gogoi must come to terms with the reality that the Ulfa has left him no option to pursue the political process. The only realistic option for him is to take up the Ulfa’s challenge and use all his resources — political and administrative — in meeting it. It is also time he convinced the Centre that there must be an end to the Ulfa’s violence before the political process is to be resumed. But the one thing that Mr Gogoi cannot afford to do is allow considerations of electoral gains to tie his hands. Insurgency has bled Assam for so long. It would be even sadder if this bloody militancy is used as grist to the electoral mill. The politics of insurgency can be suicidal even for those who may sometimes gain from it.