for perpetrating the most nefarious crime themselves. The question that therefore comes up most prominently and pertinently in this context is: can the police-criminal linkage that is admittedly vitiating the social climate of this state as much as of other parts of the country be snapped without snapping the -criminal-politician nexus? Will the Left Front and its leading partner, the CPI(M), scrutinise this question with due seriousness?