Kitne Aadmi The? Do Sardar.

Natwar is gone. The other man I always thought was a misfit is Shivraj Patil. Kitne aadmi the and Andhra back to square one. He's the Union home minister, the man responsible for internal security of this country. But he too has been living in a time warp.

And look what he has gifted us. By letting the murderous Maoist marauders lord over a large part of India by playing softball with them, Patil has made these guys regroup, consolidate and become more dangerous for the country. The boom generally experienced in Indian economy has not touched life in the Red Corridor of India.

Poverty and lack of development suit the Maoist agenda. They, on the face of it, fight for the poor. So they need poor people to stay poor, so that they can fight for them. I'm not saying that poverty would disappear overnight if the Maoists weren't there. But I firmly believe is that their situation will improve dramatically if they were allowed to join the mainstream.

Maoists do not want roads because roads make it easier for the law to chase them. Roads also make it easier for market capitalism to go deep in the countryside. So they attack road contractors. They collect taxes to arm themselves. They kill policemen and snatch their arms. In some places, they run a parallel government.

The Central government knows that. Shivraj Patil knew that when he came into power. But then power came into him. And he chose to ignore all the signs that scream: Dear India, Maoist terrorism is bigger than Kashmir terrorism. But Shivraj opted for soft, silky road to peace. In Kashmir. In the Red corridor: Running from Nepal to Tamil Nadu. The result is: more bloodshed.