BASTAR, Chhattisgarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that although armed Naxalism (Maoism) has been eliminated from the country, a threat remains from what he called “Dimaagi Naxals,” or intellectual Naxalites, who must be defeated to safeguard national security. Addressing security forces in Bastar, he said India has achieved a historic victory over the past 12 years not only against Naxalism and separatism but also against poverty.
Citing a recent World Bank report, Modi said nearly 500 million people in India have been lifted out of extreme poverty in recent years. He said his government had accomplished what decades of “Garibi Hatao” slogans could not. He likened welfare programs to a rangoli, in which small patterns combine to form a single beautiful design, saying numerous schemes together had brought light into the lives of the poor.
He listed the Jan Dhan Yojana, which brought crores of people into the banking system, along with PM Awas Yojana housing, collateral-free Mudra loans, the SVANidhi scheme, free healthcare under Ayushman Bharat, free rations, Swachh Bharat and Har Ghar Jal. These schemes, he said, met the basic needs of the poor and helped them gain financial footing.
Modi said the fight against poverty and the action against Naxalism were closely linked. In areas once under Naxal influence, he said, blocking development was the extremists’ central agenda. He accused them of preventing schools from opening and burning them down, keeping hospitals and doctors out, halting polio vaccination, obstructing mobile towers and blowing up railway tracks. As a result, he said, millions of poor people and young people remained trapped in poverty and cut off from opportunity.
The government, he said, had also undertaken large-scale development in Naxal-affected regions alongside security operations. Under the protection of security forces, more than 15,000 kilometers of roads were built and over 9,000 mobile towers installed. He said about 200 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, 50 ITIs and skill development centers had been set up for tribal children.
Through the PM-JANMAN scheme, he said, remote tribal villages received drinking water, electricity and road connectivity for the first time. He credited the rehabilitation of surrendered Naxalites with ending violent incidents and said young people in Bastar had put down their guns and were now taking part in sports and even the Olympics.
Modi cautioned, however, that the threat has not fully gone away. “We have wiped out armed Naxalites from the forests, but these intellectual Naxalites have entrenched themselves in many institutions,” he said. He alleged that they continue to incite people against the Constitution and democratic institutions, and that they have infiltrated several political parties and other organizations. He called on the country to identify their conspiracies and defeat them completely.