For the first time in four decades, India is celebrating a Diwali without the shadow of Naxal violence looming over any of its districts — or so Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared from COBRA Operations Base, Bastar, in a statement quoted by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Sunday, November 8, 2026.

Sharing the Prime Minister's words, CM Sai posted: 'ये पहली दिवाली है, जब देश का हर जिला नक्सलवाद से मुक्त है' — 'This is the first Diwali when every district of the country is free from Naxalism.' Modi framed the moment as the culmination of a struggle spanning 40 to 50 years, calling Diwali 2026 a 'truly special' occasion unlike any in living memory.

Bastar as the Symbol of a Turned Tide

Bastar, the sprawling forested division of southern Chhattisgarh, has long been the geographic heart of India's Left Wing Extremism problem. For decades, its districts — Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur — appeared near-permanently on the Home Ministry's list of the most Naxal-affected areas in the country. Security forces, including the elite COBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) units, fought protracted battles through dense jungle terrain at enormous human cost. The fact that the Prime Minister chose to deliver this declaration from a COBRA base in the same Bastar is a pointed, deliberate image.

The fight against Left Wing Extremism has been a cross-party, cross-decade project. Coordinated central and state operations, alongside infrastructure pushes — roads, schools, mobile connectivity — have steadily reduced the geographic footprint of Maoist influence since the early 2000s. What was once described as the 'Red Corridor' stretching across central and eastern India has, according to the government's current claim, been fully dismantled.

A Milestone Decades in the Making

The scale of what is being claimed matters. At the peak of Maoist insurgency, the Home Ministry classified over 100 districts across states including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, and Telangana as 'Left Wing Extremism-affected.' Thousands of civilians, police personnel, and paramilitary soldiers lost their lives over the decades. For tribal communities in Bastar especially, the insurgency meant displacement, fear, and a barrier to basic development.

Modi's words, as quoted by CM Sai, signal that the government views this Diwali not merely as a festival but as a national inflection point — a moment to mark the closing of one of independent India's longest-running internal security chapters. The official Home Ministry revision of affected-district lists, and what follow-up development and governance measures are announced for former LWE zones, will be the concrete test of whether the declaration holds.

What happens next in Bastar — in classrooms, in panchayat offices, on newly-paved roads — will be the real answer to the question PM Modi raised from that COBRA base. The lamps are lit. The work of peace now begins.