Naxals Wiped Out in Forests But ‘Dimagi Naxals Hide Among Us’: PM Modi in Bastar on Diwali
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent Diwali this year not in Delhi but deep in the forests of Bastar. On Sunday, 8 November, he was at the CoBRA Operations Base in Karanpur, Chhattisgarh, celebrating the festival with the security forces who have lived and fought there for years. He stood in uniform, spoke to the jawans, and told them something that has been buzzing ever since.
The armed Naxals, he said, are gone from the jungles. This is the first Diwali when every single district in the country is free of Naxalism. For the first time in nearly five decades, people in those areas can light diyas without the old fear hanging over them. But the danger has not finished. The “dimagi Naxals” – the ones who work with ideas, not guns – are still around. They have slipped into organisations and even some political parties. They keep trying to turn people against the Constitution and against democracy. We have to recognise them, defeat them, and keep the country safe.
That was the heart of what he told the men and women of the CRPF, CoBRA, and the other forces present. He called them family. He said he had come on behalf of 140 crore Indians to thank them for the sacrifices that made this possible. Bastar, he reminded everyone, was once the place where Naxal terror hit hardest. After sunset the roads emptied. Villages lived under threat. There were years when more than two thousand attacks happened across the country, and over 230 districts in nearly twenty states felt the pressure. In Chhattisgarh alone more than a thousand jawans lost their lives over the years. The 2010 Dantewada attack that killed 76 CRPF personnel is still remembered with pain.
Modi said earlier governments treated Naxalism like an incurable disease and left it alone. Political will returned after 2014. Operations intensified. Senior leaders were eliminated, many surrendered, and the organised armed movement was broken. The government declared the country free of Naxalism on 31 March this year. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had already said Bastar itself was free earlier. And for the first time in 47 years, not a single CRPF jawan died on operational duty in the past twelve months. That, the Prime Minister said, is the result of clear policy, strong resolve, and the courage and restraint of the forces on the ground.
He kept returning to the same point: the guns may be silent in the forests, but the thinking that fed the violence has not disappeared. These “dimagi Naxals” sit in cities, in organisations, sometimes inside political parties. They still try to provoke people, to create doubt about the Constitution and the democratic system. On Independence Day earlier this year he had used the same phrase. Now, standing in the very place where the fight was hardest, he repeated the warning and asked the country to stay alert.
At the same time he spoke about what has changed on the ground. Development has started reaching places that stayed cut off for decades. Roads are being built, mobile connectivity is expanding, banks and post offices are opening. People who once suffered under Naxal control are now standing with the government and the security forces. He linked it to a larger picture – roughly 50 crore Indians moving out of extreme poverty in the last twelve years, according to World Bank figures he mentioned, and Naxal violence ending in the same period. One side poverty reducing, the other side the violence ending.
This was Modi’s thirteenth straight Diwali with the security forces. He has made a habit of spending the festival with them rather than in the capital. This year the choice of Bastar carried extra weight. The CoBRA base there was the training ground and launch pad for operations in Bastar and Abujhmad, once among the toughest Maoist strongholds. Celebrating Diwali there was a way of saying the long fight had reached a turning point.
Opposition voices pushed back quickly. Congress leaders called the “dimagi Naxals” remark political and said the Prime Minister was using a solemn occasion with the forces to attack rivals. They have criticised similar language in the past. The government side insists the point is not about legitimate dissent but about those who still justify or promote the old ideology of violence and disruption.
Whatever the political argument, the facts on the ground in Bastar have shifted. The forests that once echoed with ambushes are quieter. Families who lived with constant fear are lighting lamps more freely. The forces who paid the heaviest price are being told their work is recognised at the highest level. And the Prime Minister is saying the next battle is not only in the jungle but in the realm of ideas – identifying those who still carry the old thinking into organisations and parties, and making sure it does not grow again.
He left the jawans with a clear message: the armed chapter is closed, but vigilance cannot stop. The country has to stay awake to the quieter threats that hide in plain sight. For the people of Bastar and the forces who fought there, this Diwali marked both an ending and a reminder that some fights continue in different forms.
Sources: Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India, Press Information Bureau (PIB), India Today, The Statesman, DD India.
Naxals Wiped Out in Forests But ‘Dimagi Naxals Hide Among Us’: PM Modi in Bastar on Diwali
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent Diwali this year not in Delhi but deep in the forests of Bastar. On Sunday, 8 November, he was at the CoBRA Operations Base in Karanpur, Chhattisgarh, celebrating the festival with the security forces who have lived and fought there for years. He stood in uniform, spoke to the jawans, and told them something that has been buzzing ever since.
The armed Naxals, he said, are gone from the jungles. This is the first Diwali when every single district in the country is free of Naxalism. For the first time in nearly five decades, people in those areas can light diyas without the old fear hanging over them. But the danger has not finished. The “dimagi Naxals” – the ones who work with ideas, not guns – are still around. They have slipped into organisations and even some political parties. They keep trying to turn people against the Constitution and against democracy. We have to recognise them, defeat them, and keep the country safe.
That was the heart of what he told the men and women of the CRPF, CoBRA, and the other forces present. He called them family. He said he had come on behalf of 140 crore Indians to thank them for the sacrifices that made this possible. Bastar, he reminded everyone, was once the place where Naxal terror hit hardest. After sunset the roads emptied. Villages lived under threat. There were years when more than two thousand attacks happened across the country, and over 230 districts in nearly twenty states felt the pressure. In Chhattisgarh alone more than a thousand jawans lost their lives over the years. The 2010 Dantewada attack that killed 76 CRPF personnel is still remembered with pain.
Modi said earlier governments treated Naxalism like an incurable disease and left it alone. Political will returned after 2014. Operations intensified. Senior leaders were eliminated, many surrendered, and the organised armed movement was broken. The government declared the country free of Naxalism on 31 March this year. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had already said Bastar itself was free earlier. And for the first time in 47 years, not a single CRPF jawan died on operational duty in the past twelve months. That, the Prime Minister said, is the result of clear policy, strong resolve, and the courage and restraint of the forces on the ground.
He kept returning to the same point: the guns may be silent in the forests, but the thinking that fed the violence has not disappeared. These “dimagi Naxals” sit in cities, in organisations, sometimes inside political parties. They still try to provoke people, to create doubt about the Constitution and the democratic system. On Independence Day earlier this year he had used the same phrase. Now, standing in the very place where the fight was hardest, he repeated the warning and asked the country to stay alert.
At the same time he spoke about what has changed on the ground. Development has started reaching places that stayed cut off for decades. Roads are being built, mobile connectivity is expanding, banks and post offices are opening. People who once suffered under Naxal control are now standing with the government and the security forces. He linked it to a larger picture – roughly 50 crore Indians moving out of extreme poverty in the last twelve years, according to World Bank figures he mentioned, and Naxal violence ending in the same period. One side poverty reducing, the other side the violence ending.
This was Modi’s thirteenth straight Diwali with the security forces. He has made a habit of spending the festival with them rather than in the capital. This year the choice of Bastar carried extra weight. The CoBRA base there was the training ground and launch pad for operations in Bastar and Abujhmad, once among the toughest Maoist strongholds. Celebrating Diwali there was a way of saying the long fight had reached a turning point.
Opposition voices pushed back quickly. Congress leaders called the “dimagi Naxals” remark political and said the Prime Minister was using a solemn occasion with the forces to attack rivals. They have criticised similar language in the past. The government side insists the point is not about legitimate dissent but about those who still justify or promote the old ideology of violence and disruption.
Whatever the political argument, the facts on the ground in Bastar have shifted. The forests that once echoed with ambushes are quieter. Families who lived with constant fear are lighting lamps more freely. The forces who paid the heaviest price are being told their work is recognised at the highest level. And the Prime Minister is saying the next battle is not only in the jungle but in the realm of ideas – identifying those who still carry the old thinking into organisations and parties, and making sure it does not grow again.
He left the jawans with a clear message: the armed chapter is closed, but vigilance cannot stop. The country has to stay awake to the quieter threats that hide in plain sight. For the people of Bastar and the forces who fought there, this Diwali marked both an ending and a reminder that some fights continue in different forms.
Sources: Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India, Press Information Bureau (PIB), India Today, The Statesman, DD India.
@Rohit Manral
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