A decades-long insurgency, a former prime minister's warning, and a pointed political challenge — Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju compressed all three into a single post on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, directing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to acknowledge Prime Minister Narendra Modi's record on Left-Wing Extremism and declaring that the government's next target is what he called 'Dimagi Naxals.'

Manmohan Singh's Warning, Modi's Claim

Rijiju's post opens with a double-edged manoeuvre: invoking the Congress party's own legacy to sharpen the attack. He cites former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who in 2006 famously called Left-Wing Extremism 'the single biggest internal security threat' facing India — a quote that has anchored security debates for two decades. The implicit argument: even Congress once acknowledged the scale of the Naxal threat, so credit for neutralising it belongs squarely to the Modi government.

Successive BJP administrations have pointed to measurable reductions in Maoist violence and territorial control across the so-called 'Red Corridor' — states such as Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand — as proof of improved internal security management. Security forces have recorded sharp falls in violent incidents compared to peak years in the previous decade. Whether armed Maoism has been fully 'eliminated' — as Rijiju's framing implies — remains a contested assessment; pockets of activity and displacement persist in core districts.

'Dimagi Naxals': The Next Political Front

The more combustible phrase is the one Rijiju reserves for the end. 'Next target is to finish Dimagi Naxals' — a term that translates roughly as 'intellectual Naxals' or 'Naxals of the mind.' The phrase has circulated in BJP political discourse for several years, typically used to describe urban academics, activists, lawyers, or journalists accused of providing ideological cover to extremist networks. Its targets and precise legal or policy implications remain undefined and contested.

The rhetorical escalation is deliberate. By framing Rahul Gandhi as someone who needs to be corrected on national security — and by linking past armed insurgency to a current political category — Rijiju is extending an established BJP narrative into new terrain ahead of what is expected to be a charged parliamentary session. The challenge to Rahul to 'thank Modi ji' is simultaneously a news event and a campaign salvo.

Why the Red Corridor Story Matters Now

India's battle against Left-Wing Extremism is one of the longest-running internal security operations in independent history. At its peak, the insurgency affected more than 200 districts across central and eastern India, threatening infrastructure, displacing tribal communities, and killing hundreds of security personnel annually. The government's claim of decisively turning that tide — and the Congress opposition's response to that claim — will shape the internal-security debate in Parliament and beyond. For tribal communities still living in affected areas, the question of what 'elimination' actually means on the ground is anything but rhetorical.