Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a sharp political broadside against the Indian National Congress on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, accusing the opposition party of consistently supporting Naxal insurgency — a charge that cuts to the heart of one of India's longest-running internal security debates.

In a post on X, Shah wrote: 'Naxaliyon se hathiyar na chhodne ko kahne wali aur unki Janatana Adalatonko shah dene wali Congress ne hamesha Naxalwad ka hi samarthan kiya hai.' — translated: 'The Congress, which asked Naxalites not to surrender their weapons and which emboldened their Janatana courts, has always supported Naxalism.'

The 'Janatana courts' charge and what it means

The accusation carries two specific barbs. The first — that Congress discouraged Naxalite disarmament — targets the party's handling of surrender and rehabilitation schemes, which successive central governments have run in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha since the mid-2000s. Those programmes offer cash, skills training, and legal cover to insurgents who lay down arms. Any signal — real or perceived — that Maoists should hold on to weapons directly undercuts those drives.

The second charge is arguably more pointed. Janatana courts — or 'people's courts' — are parallel judicial structures that Maoist groups operate in pockets of the Red Corridor, dispensing summary 'justice' outside the constitutional order and, critics argue, entrenching insurgent authority over tribal communities. Shah's allegation that Congress provided political cover, or 'shah' (emboldening), to these structures frames the party not merely as soft on insurgency, but as complicit in a rival sovereignty.

BJP's counter-LWE push and the political battleground

The BJP-led government has made the dismantling of Left Wing Extremism — what it terms LWE — a signature security priority. Security forces have conducted intensified operations across the Red Corridor, while centrally-funded development schemes have targeted road connectivity, mobile infrastructure, and tribal welfare in affected districts. The government has pointed to declining violence incidents and a shrinking Maoist geographic footprint as evidence of progress.

The Congress, which has governed several Red Corridor states at various points, has pushed back against what it describes as a purely militaristic approach, arguing for dialogue and addressing tribal grievances. That long-running disagreement is the fault line Shah is striking — framing it not as a policy difference but as a fundamental alignment of values.

The tribes caught in the middle

Beyond the political sparring, the stakes for tribal communities across Bastar, Gadchiroli, and the broader Red Corridor are entirely concrete. Janatana courts have been documented operating in areas where state institutions have weak reach, leaving villagers subject to Maoist edicts on land disputes, social conduct, and perceived 'collaboration' with the government. Security forces and civilian officials working in these zones remain targets. The political argument about who enabled or confronted this parallel structure has direct consequences for those communities.

With anti-Naxal operations and rehabilitation drives ongoing, and Congress likely to respond to Shah's broadside, this exchange signals that Naxalism will remain a live electoral and governance flashpoint well into the season ahead.