See the complete article by an ISI professor of economics at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071025/asp/opinion/story_8468453.asp. Following are some excerpts:

Ration shops are burning all over West Bengal. They are being attacked, looted and put on fire by groups of angry, disgruntled citizens, who seem to have decided that they have had enough. The upsurge has already exacted its toll and a few lives have been lost. Some have died in police firing. Others, comprising fair-price shopowners, who were unable to bear the fines and humiliation inflicted upon them by people’s courts, have committed suicide. One might see signs of a spontaneous revolt against the ruling Left in the string of riots or might detect the opposition marshalling its strength before the all-important panchayat polls next year. One might even smell Maoist provocation behind the sedition. But however political the riots might look on the surface, it is impossible to deny that without extreme economic hardship the people of rural Bengal, who have shown a traditionally high level of endurance, would not have resorted to such extreme measures. How acute are the hardships? What are the reasons behind them?

The problem essentially is one of hunger and starvation. …

In February 2007, the National Sample Survey had come out with a report on perceived inadequacy of food consumption in Indian households. …

Of the seventeen states considered in the table, West Bengal has the highest percentage of households (10.6 per cent) not getting enough to eat during some months of the year. The second is Orissa, with 4.8 per cent….

… Clearly, modernizing the trade in foodgrain cannot solve all the problems. Especially, it cannot solve the problems of those who do not have work and income for a significant part of the year. Indeed, a significant part of the foodgrain produced in the state is leaving its boundaries because the people within do not have enough money to buy food. So a longer-run remedy would be to create purchasing power within the state. This can be achieved only by promoting industrialization on a very large scale.

What is funny is that the CPI and CPIM leaders come to Orissa to preach their anti-industrialization message while favoring for industrialization of their home state. More funny is that many in Orissa look upto these CPI and CPIM leaders from outside state.