A decades-long insurgency that once held entire forest districts hostage has, according to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, finally been broken — and the credit, he argues, lies squarely with political will that arrived only after 2014. On Sunday, 8 November 2026, Shah took to X to amplify remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, declaring that Congress-era governments had abandoned Naxalism as an incurable disease, while the BJP administration diagnosed it, treated it, and eliminated it.

Shah's post, in Hindi, states: 'Modi ji ne bataya ki kaise Congress ki sarkaaron ne Naxalvad ko laaelaj bimari maankar chhod diya tha. 2014 ke baad raajnitik ichchhashakti aur ranneeti badli, aur aaj Bharat Naxalmukta hai.' — ('Modi ji explained how Congress governments had abandoned Naxalism by treating it as an incurable disease. After 2014, political will and strategy changed, and today India is Naxal-free.')

From Operation Green Hunt to a declared end-state

The Maoist insurgency, rooted in the late 1960s peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal, spread over subsequent decades into a 'Red Corridor' spanning Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and parts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar. At its peak the movement inflicted significant casualties on security forces and civilians alike, and left large swathes of central India effectively ungoverned. The UPA government in 2009 launched Operation Green Hunt — a coordinated multi-state security offensive — but critics argued it lacked a coherent development component and produced mixed results on the ground.

After 2014, the BJP-led NDA government coupled intensified counter-insurgency operations with surrender and rehabilitation policies and accelerated development spending in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts. The number of officially designated LWE-affected districts shrank steadily over successive annual reviews, as road connectivity, mobile networks, and banking infrastructure were pushed deeper into previously inaccessible terrain.

Shah's political framing and what it signals

The Home Minister's post is explicitly comparative — drawing a direct line between Congress inaction and BJP resolve. This framing is consistent with the BJP's broader internal-security narrative, which positions 2014 as a rupture point on issues ranging from cross-border terrorism to Left Wing Extremism. By quoting the Prime Minister on the subject, Shah elevates the declaration to the level of a formal government claim.

It is worth noting that independent assessments prior to 2023 documented a sharp and genuine decline in LWE-related violence — fewer districts affected, fewer incidents, and reduced territorial control by Maoist cadres — but also flagged residual pockets of activity in parts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Official parliamentary statements and updated district lists will be the clearest measure of how completely that last ground has been cleared.

What tribal communities and security forces are watching

The stakeholders most directly affected are the tribal communities of central India, who lived for decades between the cross-pressures of Maoist mobilisation and state security operations. For them, the end of active insurgency matters less as a political talking point and more as a question of whether development dividends — schools, hospitals, roads, livelihoods — actually arrive. Security forces, too, have paid a heavy price over the years; a formal declaration of success carries meaning for the families of those lost in the long campaign.

If India's Naxal chapter is truly closed, it marks one of the most consequential internal-security achievements in the republic's history. The coming weeks — and any official government report on district-level status — will tell us just how complete that final chapter really is.