That ill-fated attempt to dismiss the Rabri regime has weighed heavily on the Cabinet. For, if the Centre had not burnt its fingers five months ago, it might not have waited for a crescendo of condemnation to build up before recommending invocation of Article 356. In fact, the BJP and the Samata Party, its ally in Bihar, have made no secret of their desire to send the Rashtriya Janata Dal government packing. Though this time the Centre is on a more secure wicket vis-a-vis Rashtrapati Bhawan, it still has to reckon with the Congress, whose support is virtually a requisite to ensure parliamentary ratification for President's rule. Unfortunately, the party has continued to speak in two voices. On Thursday while its president Sonia Gandhi thundered that the Rabri government had forfeited its moral authority to govern, the Congress spokesperson refused to comment on withdrawing support to the RJD. It is this characteristic doublespeak that has to be eschewed if the party leadershipwants to lend a semblance of credibility to its professed, if belated, outrage over the massacre and participate in charting Bihar's political future.

Having said that, mere imposition of President's rule without striking at the root of Jehanabad's caste wars would amount to a mockery of the Constitution. Reinforcing and reinvigorating the police and paramilitary forces is, of course, the first priority. The fact that private armies like the Ranvir Sena and the Naxalites procure arms with relative ease and openly exhibit them highlights the obvious starting point: stanching the flow of ammunition. But the challenge does not end with effective policing. The recurrent midnight massacres are but a criminal manifestation of an exploitative malaise that has seeped into the district's socio-economic fabric. Remember, the genesis of the caste wars dates back to the Dalits' attempt to secure basic human rights like a minimum wage. So, as the scene shifts to political deliberations in New Delhi, the travails of thepeople of Jehanabad cannot be put on the back burner till the marauders' next strike.