Not surprisingly, the Maoists now loom large in every conversation. As the outpouring of opinions on television and not a few newspapers shows, they have become the targets of rage in the new India. But one can only wonder how many of the millions that daily face extortion by unaccountable petty bureaucrats; that wait for years at courts for a justice that is never rendered; and know that a third of candidates that political parties ask them to vote for are criminals, share this rage. Today, many of them must be looking at their government with new eyes and asking questions it had not occurred to them to ask before.