Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Wednesday, 24 June 2026 credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with delivering what she called a decisive blow against Naxalism, arguing that a combination of security, development and public trust has brought Left Wing Extremism to its final stage in India.

Context

Posting in Hindi on X, CM Gupta wrote that PM Modi had struck at Naxalism with a 'त्रिशक्ति' (tri-force) of security, development and public trust. She described the moment as the victory of an idea: 'where there was once terror, talent will get opportunity; where there was once fear, the future will smile; and where there was once the shadow of violence, new dreams will take shape.' The post was accompanied by a video.

The remarks reflect a broader BJP narrative that the Modi government's integrated approach since 2014 has fundamentally altered the trajectory of Left Wing Extremism — a challenge that has persisted in India's forested hinterland for more than five decades.

Policy Backdrop

Successive Indian governments have treated Left Wing Extremism as both a security and a developmental challenge. The UPA government launched Operation Green Hunt in 2009, a coordinated security offensive spanning multiple Naxal-affected states. After 2014, the NDA government reoriented the approach around three pillars — security operations, infrastructure investment and community outreach — later formalised under the SAMADHAN doctrine.

The doctrine couples area-domination operations by central paramilitary forces with road-building, school construction and mobile-tower projects in remote forested districts. Chhattisgarh, which has historically recorded the highest concentration of Maoist-affected districts, has been the principal theatre for both security operations and development schemes. Official data have shown a steady reduction in the number of most-affected districts over the past decade, though the pace and depth of that reduction remain subjects of policy debate.

The same integrated template has been applied in other internal conflict zones, including Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast, signalling a consistent doctrine across India's internal security landscape.

Stakeholders and Impact

Tribal communities in Naxal-affected districts stand at the centre of this policy contest — historically caught between Maoist coercion and state authority, they are the primary intended beneficiaries of development outreach. Central paramilitary forces, including the CRPF and specialised units, bear the operational burden on the security side.

State governments in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs on both counter-insurgency operations and district-level development spending. The political dimension is equally significant: framing Naxalism's decline as a governance achievement allows the ruling party to point to tangible internal-security progress ahead of state and national electoral cycles.

What's Next

The Ministry of Home Affairs annual report on internal security is expected to provide updated data on violence incidents and the number of districts still classified as Left Wing Extremism-affected. Any fresh list of districts formally declared free of Naxal influence in the coming parliamentary session will be closely watched as a benchmark for the government's claims.

If the trend of shrinking Maoist geography continues, pressure will grow on the administration to accelerate the 'post-conflict' development phase — ensuring that reclaimed areas receive sustained investment so that the conditions that historically fed recruitment into Naxal ranks do not re-emerge.