This Diwali, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis declared it a celebration of something far larger than festival lights — the victory of trust over fear, and of peace over decades of Naxal and Maoist violence. In a post on Sunday, 8 November 2026, Fadnavis credited the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the guidance of Union Home Minister Amit Shah with achieving what he called a historic milestone: every district in India now free from Naxalism.

Posting in Hindi, Fadnavis wrote: 'इस दिवाली देश मना रहा है भय पर विश्वास और नक्सलवाद व माओवाद पर शांति की विजय का उत्सव!' ('This Diwali, the country is celebrating the victory of trust over fear and of peace over Naxalism and Maoism!'). He called the festival of lights a symbol of a transformation in which every district of the country has been freed from Naxalism, and crores of citizens are stepping out of the shadow of fear toward a safer future.

Decades of left-wing extremism, and the SAMADHAN turn

The fight against left-wing extremism in central and eastern India has spanned multiple governments and cost thousands of lives — among security forces, civilians, and those caught in between. The geographical spread of Naxal influence once covered large swathes of the so-called 'Red Corridor', running through parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana and neighbouring states.

The strategic shift sharpened in 2017 when the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the SAMADHAN strategy — an integrated framework combining security operations, infrastructure development, and rehabilitation to squeeze Naxal influence from multiple directions simultaneously. Official data over the following years recorded a progressive reduction in violent incidents and a shrinkage in the number of districts officially classified as affected.

Modi and Shah's internal-security imprint

Amit Shah, as Union Home Minister, has made the elimination of left-wing extremism a headline deliverable of the BJP-led government's internal security agenda. Regular high-level reviews, stepped-up joint operations by the Central Reserve Police Force and state police, and an aggressive push on roads, mobile connectivity, and banking in tribal regions have all been cited as contributing factors.

Fadnavis, himself a former Home Minister of Maharashtra — a state with Naxal-affected pockets in its Gadchiroli district — brings first-hand familiarity to this claim. His post frames the Diwali moment not merely as a seasonal greeting but as a political and civilisational milestone.

What the 'Naxal-free' declaration means — and what comes next

The claim that every district in India is now Naxal-free, if officially confirmed by the government, would represent a landmark endpoint to one of independent India's longest internal conflicts. The next markers to watch are formal government notifications on the revised list of left-wing extremism-affected districts, and parliamentary or state-level reviews of rehabilitation and development programmes for tribal communities who lived under the shadow of that conflict for generations.

The real test of this Diwali's promise will be written not in security bulletins, but in the lives of those tribal communities finally able to build a future without fear.