Under no circumstances is he required to exhort the people to meet even terrorist violence with privately-organised retribution. The terrorists, too, have to be dealt with through the established process of law. The Governor's shocking advice is only a short step from condoning the creation of private armies of a kind which exists in Bihar, and conceding that the state he serves lacks the capability to maintain law and order. Indeed, it is to be hoped that Lt. Gen. Sinha, through his uncalled for observations, is not resorting to a political ploy to create the atmosphere for the imposition of Central rule on the state.

To his credit, however, the Governor has been quick to note that the ULFA is now adopting the ISI-scripted Kashmir-type strategy of attacking the minorities in Assam. The ULFA's ISI connections are hardly a matter of conjecture any longer, making it the first Hindu outfit supported by Pakistan. In June last year, an editorial in Freedom, its magazine on the web widely suspected to be run by the ISI, had lent support to the Pakistani intrusion in Kargil. If the ULFA is now targeting Hindi-speaking people, it is presumably because the Assamese chauvinists can no longer focus on the Bengali-speaking population, since they are now obliged to seek shelter in Bangladesh. In the circumstances, the state Government needs to be helped in combating foreign-assisted terrorism, as in Kashmir, rather than be made a victim of short-sighted political games. Thus, the official response against the ULFA should have a national perspective. A parochial outlook is bound to be counter-productive.