Market is in some sense like the snake. Plight your troth with it, you can partake of all the joys that the union has to offer, as Tantric philosophy would have it. But cross swords with it, then it can turn vicious as only a snake can, when cornered. The erstwhile Government in West Bengal, led by the Marxists, learnt this to their cost in Singur. Now, the UPA Government at the Centre is realising to its dismay the wisdom of this assertion as it is engaged in a messy dispute with Reliance over falling gas output at the off-shore basin of the Krishna Godavari rivers.