Nero fiddled while Rome burned

Post- Burdwan blasts, there seems to be a restiveness in the air in West Bengal. The navy has pulled out its warships from the Garden Reach shipyard, the police have gone on high alert, important buildings and locations have been placed under observation, and the social media is abuzz with the rumours and apprehensions of further security incidents.

Not surprising, I would say,  given the demographic composition of today's Bengal, but I guess that would turn me communal in the eyes of many self-proclaimed seclarists. Actually, its not so much the  demographics as such , as  the polarisation of the masses and the systematic radicalisation of a section of the minorities, together with the State government's habitual inclination to look the other way, that has caused this state of affairs.

The state government has played its bungling role as usual, first professing its ignorance and then obstructing a smooth investigation by the Central agencies into the Burdwan incident. And now it has suddenly woke up to the need for combating terror in a state which is virtually a tinderbox today, waiting to go up in flames at any point.

What places Bengal in such an incendiary  position, in addition to the demographic changes of the last three decades,  is its location at the juxtaposition of three international borders, including  a vast underpatrolled border with Bangladesh. It has all the elements needed to turn into a manufacturing hub of terrorism, from where the prepetrators of crime can fan out to all parts of India, enjoying a kind of political sanctuary here.  Indeed,true to this apprehension,  in the Jaipur and Pune blasts, the Bengal connection was seen, which probably points to the truth behind this theorem.

So , will our government wake up to the need for controlling the fomentation of terror in this state , and put in strong, effective deterrant measures? Or , like the infamous  emperor Nero who fiddled while his empire Rome burnt, it will choose to look the other way and turn a blind eye to things while fire rages in the state ? Only time will tell, and till then , we have to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.