Proud to be dimagi naxal, says Chidambaram after PM Modi remark

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day warning against 'dimagi naxals', saying he was 'proud to be a dimagi naxal'. In a post on X, Chidambaram wrote: 'I am proud to be a dimagi naxal!', a day after Modi, speaking from the Red Fort on India's 80th Independence Day, urged citizens to 'identify and isolate' people with a Maoist mindset who, he alleged, had entrenched themselves in the system and influenced public policy.

Modi said that while armed Naxalism had been largely eliminated from the forests, 'dimagi naxals', ideological supporters of Maoism, continued to pose a threat by seeking to promote violence and anarchy. He claimed more than 3,500 police and security personnel had been killed in the conflict, and said regions once affected by Naxal violence were now seeing development. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also criticised the Prime Minister, drawing a parallel to the earlier term 'urban naxal' and calling the remark a sign of 'desperation'.

The exchange has sharpened the political contest between the BJP and Congress over the use of ideological labels. Ramesh alleged that the government ultimately adopts policies advocated by those it labels as naxals. Chidambaram's terse retort has ensured the prime minister's Independence Day warning spills into the political arena, with the Opposition turning the phrase back on the government.