Manmohan Singh has been using the same sentence every year in his annual speech to chief ministers where he highlights that “Left wing extremism is the biggest internal security challenge of the country”. I suppose media too is seized of the matter. If so, why does election coverage almost black out the entire swathe of Maoist corridor? In the so-called “liberated zone” of Malkangiri, 200 families who had to give away their land in the Sixties for a dam are still awaiting land compensation or even electricity. They have not joined forces with the Maoists hoping that they will get jobs, if not land. They will vote in 2014 but it will not be televised. In the assembly elections in Chhatisgarh last year, Bastar which is the heartland of Maoists saw a 40% voter turnout. That in itself was one of the biggest stories, which found a mere mentioned but no real coverage. Is it too risky for reporters to venture there? Is risk supposed to be a deterrent to journalists? If polling personnel can go there, why not journalists (with the exception of a few)?Perhaps it is because Bastar has just one (1) LS seat.