But relatively little attention has focused on the technologies of rule that the CPI(M) has perfected in Bengal. Political violence appears to be fairly routine, the party has used the state apparatus to bring civil society organisations under its control, protest is routinely stifled, and the line between state and party has almost disappeared. The state in West Bengal has taken over the superintendence of educational institutions and intellectual life to an extent unimaginable in any other state. The kinds of phenomenon that in other states arouse outrage receive only mild censure in West Bengal.