The ease with which the Maoists held the Orissa-Rajdhani hostage for seven hours and then got away has thrown up several questions on what this means for the battle against Naxals and for the politics around the issue.
- For one, will the Centre's anti-Naxal offensive remain unchanged after Tuesday's events?
- Has the siege and the prisoner swap for the release of the Bengal cop opened up new fronts in the battle against Naxals?
- Have the Naxals seized the advantage even before Centre's offensive begins? After all, when the Centre declared the offensive, they did say they would spread out and strike at places difficult to guard.
- Are the Maoists concentrating on West Bengal, instead of Chhattisgarh, known to be their hub?
- The boldness and ease with which the Maoists carried out Tuesday's operation shows they can strike in places difficult to guard. This means that the government will have to do more patrolling now for remote tracks.
- The Centre is now clearly caught between its ally Mamata's demands for action against Bengal Chief Minister Buddha and the state of Bengal, which is a crucial frontier in the fight against Naxals.
- Maoist leader Kishanji and the PCPA, the pro Maoist group that held the train hostage, wanted Mamata Banerjee to intervene. Is the Home Ministry worried about the possible links between the Trinamool and the Maoists in places like Lalgarh, Singur and Nandigram?