Not Entirely without Gains

Not Entirely without Gains Nireekshak ON February 25, the Times of India featured on its front page the following tell-tale headlines: "Five Naxalites Killed Inside Jail", declared the lead headline; "Seven Killed as Police Open Fire in Kota", screamed the second lead headline; and the third lead carried the three-column headline, "Platoon at Every Police Station". The Hindustan Times of the same day, while printing all the three main stories cited above on its front page, carried some additional information, also on the front page. "Violence Claims Two More Lives", said one report, while another had the heading "Minister Hit by Stones". The pattern was more or less the same in every other newspaper. A foreigner visiting India and untutored in the ways of Indian democracy might well have wondered what it was that India was fighting: an election or a war?