Lalgarh: For almost a week, the nation has been seeing images from what appears like a war zone, leading everyone to ask how could a district just three hours away from one of our biggest cities and West Bengal's capital alarmingly turn into a so-called Maoist Liberated Zone.
The Maoist are in control in Lalgarh and the civil administration is simply melting away. Here's a look at whether Lalgarh is truly a case of a heavily-armed Maoist cadre taking over territory, or more a case of a state government missing in action.
"We are supporting the causes of the people of West Bengal, including the people at Lalgarh, including the minorities and the SC/ST communities. And we strongly deplore the depleted condition of the people in Lalgarh. And we are saying once again, it has been created by the CPM. The Chief Minister is having a double standard and he is playing to the gallery," said Trinamool Congress leader Partho Chatterjee.
"The Trinamool Congress may be successful in disrupting or supplanting the Marxist government but they will be faced by the Maoist power the minute they take over. They think they have an understanding, an alliance, but soon it will be the TMC cadre who will be murdered in the villages, just as the Marxists are in the villages today," said Ajai Sahni, executive director, Institute of Conflict Management.
"Maoists are indulging in senseless violence by attacking innocent people and our poor cadres," said CPM leader Brinda Karat.
Poor cadre that owned houses that stood out in Lalgarh's deprivation and misery. CPM is an authoritarian rule, their cadre-men are money lords in the area.
"The CPM has for a long time ruled with the gun. It has been very oppressive for the people. We are now fighting for our rights, fighting against brutality," said Maoist leader Chhatradhar Mahato.
"We don't believe in violence. We will barricade the roads to prevent police from coming in as we have already done. If they shoot and kill us, so be it," he added.
Groups like the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities may be important forums to express people's grievances, but become instruments in the Maoists wider agenda.
"We want ceasefire. We are against violence and counter violence," said filmmaker Aparna Sen.
Unfortunately, also feeding into the Maoist agenda are well meaning intellectuals, concerned at the state's brutality, but unable to distinguish between police excesses against villagers and a situation as explosive as Lalgarh, where the state must intervene and use its legitimate force to restore law and order.
"First of all, you must understand a large degree of the popular upsurge in Lalgarh, Singur. A large part of this is the Marxist have run a harsh, very authoritarian model where all aspects of governance were controlled by party cadres right down to the village levels. That is stifling and has remained stifling for decades. When this begins to unravel you begin to see the masses tending towards whatever force supports the unravelling of this authoritarian structure. This is where the Trinamool comes in first. Once once the TMC has created the based disorders, the Maoists come in and start consolidating their power," said Ajai Sahni.
"The Maoists never put up a demand saying give these people these benefits and we will back off. The Maoists say we will militarise. The Maoist only uses what they call partial struggles for what they call a people's war. And this is stated in their documents. They say categorically that these partial struggles. If they do not further their objective, they are irrelevant. In any area where lawless force is rampant, you should not think that you can reach people's opinion," he added.
The fear of the gun looming large and so even the best attempts by a journalist to find out people's opinion may not yield much.
"What can we say? We are so poor we need the government to give us some amenities so that we can survive. That's what we want but what do we do, one group says join us, another says do this," said a villager.
"I have the same thing to say. We are just too scared to do anything," said another villager.
"We have no problems. There is nothing to say. We are poor, have been so and will stay poor," said one villager. When asked who's better - the Maoists or the government - he said, "I can't answer that question. Everyone says they are good, they will do things."
But the villager was too scared to even give his name out, and others are ready to take on forces. Is there any way of knowing the extent of ground support when the Maoists are here?