Naxals use the code jalebi (traditionally an orange spiral sweet with a gooey middle) to describe the pandrol clips that were pulled two days ago, resulting in the death of at least one hundred people. Here’s a diagram:

Michael thinks this was not the work of the Naxals:

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the Naxalites were not responsible for the recent train derailment. It contradicts their modus operandi. They do not do terrorism. And they have denied responsibility. Even when they fuck up, they admit responsibility.

I’m not so sure. While I agree that the inadvertently massive body count was not the work of the ‘Naxals proper’ (a hierarchical ideologically-bound organization), I do believe it was conducted under the auspices of the Naxal umbrella. As I’ve described before, the structure of the organization looks like this:

A majority of the activity driving the Naxalite movement forward comes from the black market that the Maoist hierarchy underpins and protects. This is why, despite calls for all out assault on polls to show just how strong the movement is, most profit-motivated participants in this illicit network continued about their daily business – slowly eroding the ability of the nation-state to conduct any activity in the regions where they generate profit from illicit trade.

This seems to be supported (again) by the facts on the ground:

An intelligence report submitted to West Bengal CM has pointed to the involvement of a renegade faction of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) in the Gyaneshwari Express sabotage on Friday.

“The Manikpara Lodhasuli unit has turned renegade and does things on its own. Most of the murders and assaults in the last few months were not sanctioned by the Maoist central committee,” said a source. “It’s likely that the top leadership did not know about the derailment plan.”

The Maoist leadership has little control over the group that has turned to extortion.

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