The similarities do not end here. Both are anti-American and against the capitalist West. And both enjoy a measure of support from sections of the ordinary people and intellectuals for this reason and also because they claim to be fighting against a repressive oligarchy, dominated by the US.

In India, however, evidence of how much support the Maoists enjoy from the common man is sketchy. It is based mainly on the fact that they have been able to establish their bases in the forested tribal regions. It is assumed, therefore, that they have the backing of the locals. But it isn't clear how much of the backing is the result of coercion by the gun-toting Maoists and how much because of adherence to their ideology.

In Pakistan, too, the fact that the religious fanatics have been functioning from the largely inaccessible tribal regions near the Durand line suggests that they have succeeded in making the locals accept them - again either through coercion or by stoking their religions passions. The scene in Pakistan, however, has a complicating factor. It is that there are two groups of terrorists. One, which includes the Taliban, wants to overthrow the state, while another group, which includes the Lashkar-e-Toiba, is a creation of the state and is friendly towards it because the latter wants to use it against India.

However, the civil society in the major towns in Pakistan believes that both these groups have flourished because of the longstanding anti-American sentiments of the people. Moreover, every time a US drone targets a suspected band of terrorists and kills innocent people, the anti-American feelings become stronger. Indigence and a madrasa-based educational system for the poorer sections, which teaches little of the modern world, provide fertile recruiting ground to the fundamentalist outfits.

In India, too, widespread deprivation and an uncaring administration in the tribal regions helped the Maoists to establish themselves by posing as champions of the poor. From their experience in the Seventies, the Maoists (then known as Naxalites) learnt the useful lesson that operating in the towns enabled the police to infiltrate their ranks and eliminate them via fake encounters. But the jungles provide a more secure environment. But even they cannot be unaware that so far, the security forces haven't launched a major offensive against them, except in Andhra Pradesh, from where they were ousted.

Since it is only a matter of time before they face a sustained onslaught, they are probably banking on the possibility of innocent tribals getting caught in the crossfire. Already, a section of the Indian media has been highlighting the atrocities committed by the security police against the villagers in the Maoist-infested areas. In fact, it was one such offensive in West Bengal's Lalgarh area following a landmine explosion aimed at the chief minister's convoy, which led to the formation of the pro-Maoist People's Committee against Police Atrocities, which has been blamed for the derailing of the Gyaneshwari Express.

As more and more such cases come to light, as they are bound to as the police operations intensity, the media and the Left-leaning intelligentsia will undoubtedly call for restraint. They are also likely to get some support from the “socialists” in the Congress like Digvijay Singh and Mani Shankar Aiyar, unless the Maoists make the mistake of targeting civilians travelling in buses and trains.

The impact of such an attack was noticeable in the views of a newspaper based in Bengaluru. After the massacre of 76 policemen by the Maoists in Dantewada, it called for a dialogue with the rebels because it was unrealistic of the government to expect “those who have not been defeated to lay down arms”. After the train derailment, however, the newspaper was less sympathetic. “The Maoists must realize”, it said, “that no cause, however noble it might be, justifies the killing of innocent people”. Nor is Arundhati Roy expected to take a walk in the woods any time soon to find out how the comrades fiddle with railway tracks.

The emergence of both the Maoists and the Taliban is due to the prevalence of a sense of injustice at the ground level. An insurrection is always fuelled by grievances. But once the uprising takes a violent form, there is no alternative for the state - whether in India or Pakistan - but to take firm action, no matter how “noble” the root cause is. Otherwise, the country as a whole will suffer because of the growing anarchy, which, of course, is the main objective of the insurgents. (IPA Service)