ON March 31, 2026, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that India has become free from Naxalism. In his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort on August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed its return.

Quite a few things happened in the intervening four months. But three developments stand out – the wave of workers’ protests that briefly spread across the northern part of the country in April and May; the historic student-youth movement that forced the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan; and the Bankipur bye-election, which resulted in a mammoth defeat for the BJP in a seat it had dominated for over three decades and had only recently been vacated by its National President. These developments have no doubt forced the BJP onto the back foot.

Modi invoking the threat of “dimagi naxals” in his address must be seen in this context. A rattled leader bereft of ideas tends to fall back on rhetoric and tactics that have proven useful in the past. The “dimagi Naxal” jibe is thus a revival of the “tukde-tukde gang”, “urban Naxal”, “andolan jeevi” and similar labels used earlier.

Fascism relentlessly seeks to appeal to outraged national sentiments so as to wield them against the enemies of fascism. The tactics adopted by the current dispensation, with their neo-fascist characteristics, are no different. Yet, while communal majoritarian rhetoric continues to hold sway over a large section of the people, the united protests against the NEET paper leak have shown the limits of its power in the face of growing dissatisfaction, especially among the younger generation, with the present state of affairs.

NOTHING FOR STUDENTS, WOMEN, WORKERS OR FARMERS

The big-ticket announcements in the Prime Minister’s speech offered little to address this discontent. Just a day after he announced free online coaching for aspirants preparing for competitive exams, the National Testing Agency notified that three papers of the UGC-NET would be re-conducted due to “many factual, typographical, translation errors… as well as repetition of a significant number of questions previously administered.” Many were quick to point out that the promise of affordable coaching for competitive exams is futile when exam after exam is ridden with leaks, errors, cancellations and re-tests, and there is no trust in the examination system itself.

On the very day that Modi declared the success of the New Education Policy, Sheikh Mohammad Mafik succumbed to injuries sustained in a brutal attack by BJP goons in Karishunda village in the Indas area of Bankura district in West Bengal. Mohammad Mafik was allegedly targeted because his son, Abdul Hafiz, had participated in the student movement at Jantar Mantar and, heeding the call of the Cockroach Janta Party, had attempted to undertake a citizens’ audit of the facilities at his village school. A recent NITI Aayog report revealed that over 94,000 government schools had shut down across the country in the last 10 years, an average of 25 schools a day, while enrolment in government schools declined by 2.26 crore students. This underlines the failure of the NEP 2020, which the BJP led Union Government is reluctant to admit.

They have now been forced to resort to a GenZ outreach named ‘One Day, One University’. It is being planned as a nationwide outreach programme under which a Union minister will visit a university every day to interact directly with students, hear their concerns and explain youth-centric welfare schemes. Yet, they refuse to acknowledge that the root of the problem lies in NEP which seeks to commercialise, centralise and communalise our education. It has led to the mushrooming of coaching centres and compounded the issues related to paper leaks and faulty examinations. Unless the NEP is scrapped our students will not get justice. And until conscious efforts are made to create adequate employment opportunities, India’s youth will also be denied justice.

In his speech, Modi hailed the passing of the Women’s Reservation Act and then put the onus on opposition parties to ensure that it gets implemented in Parliament and State Assemblies. However, it is well known that it is his government that is the obstacle. During the Monsoon Session, from July 20 to August 13, thousands of women have protested in and around Jantar Mantar demanding the immediate implementation of 33 per cent women’s reservation by delinking it from the Census and delimitation. Women’s organisations and civil society groups, under the banner of the National Coalition for Women’s Reservation, have met with various political parties and received assurance of their support for the cause in this regard. Yet the BJP refuses to pay heed. It is clear that for them, the legislation is only a plank to gerrymander constituencies and redraw the electoral map in their favour.

Modi’s claims of having ensured that farmers face no hardship and of opening up opportunities for them fly in the face of facts. Over 32,000 farmers and agricultural labourers have died by suicide in the last three years, and those are just among the states that have reported figures to the National Crime Records Bureau. Official figures show that the much-touted VB-GRAMG has resulted in a 50 per cent drop in rural employment generation. 68.94 lakh households availed the rural job guarantee scheme in July this year, generating 7.67 crore person-days of work, down from 1.42 crore households and 15.33 crore person-days in the same month last year.

The Union government is yet to keep its promise to farmers regarding a legal guarantee of MSP and addressing concerns about the Electricity Amendment Bill. Instead, it is going ahead with Free Trade Agreements detrimental to the interests of farmers without consultation with farmer bodies and unions. As for workers, Modi chose not to mention them. The hollow claims regarding the four labour codes being worker-friendly unravelled earlier this year when workers took to the streets to fight for their due.

PM DOES NOT CARE

To the families affected by floods and landslides in several parts of the country, the Prime Minister extended nothing except an empty assurance that “the entire nation stands firmly with them”. Even as he claimed that he understands their pain and suffering, people in many parts of the country would argue that he, in fact, does not. Multiple states ruled by non-BJP governments have received only a small fraction of the funds sought for relief during floods, landslides or drought. Politics has become the yardstick for release of funds, not the magnitude of disasters.

The people of Kerala would not have forgotten that the Union government had denied permission to accept aid from outside the country in the aftermath of the devastating 2018 floods, despite generous offers for assistance from abroad. And yet, the Union Home Ministry granted permission last year to Maharashtra to receive foreign funds for its Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund. In fact, the Kerala government was charged hundreds of crores of rupees by the Union for the provision of food grains and for the services rendered by the Air Force during the floods. The Union government also refused to release assistance to Kerala following the 2024 landslides in Wayanad. Even in moments of great crisis, there is discrimination among states.

A recent CAG report brought out the fact that the Union government has not spent even half of the funds under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). Of the total Rs 11,474 crore sanctioned under NDRF during 2024-25, only Rs 5,356 crore was transferred to states, leaving Rs 6,118 crore unused. The latest accounts shared by the PM CARES Fund show that by the end of 2024-25, the Fund, which was set up to deal with 'any kind of emergency or distress situation', had Rs 8,452 crore, and 93 per cent of it is being kept in fixed deposits. Last year, just Rs 88 lakh was released – merely 0.001 per cent of the Fund’s corpus.

The Fund is run from the Prime Minister’s Office and receives uncapped CSR funds, yet the Union government has refused to comply with the RTI Act, and to CAG audits. The lack of transparency means that there is no way to check whether the Fund has been used by companies to curry favour with the ruling party, as in the case of the Electoral Bonds scheme. The PM does not Care.

RESIST ASSAULT ON FREE THOUGHT

The picture that Modi attempted to portray, that of a rejuvenated nation marching toward Viksit Bharat, now has very few takers. Hence, the need for a new moniker, the “Dimagi Naxal” - a catchphrase to whip up frenzy amongst the captive base and fear among those who dare to go astray. He deemed it necessary that the Dimagi Naxals be identified and isolated to realise his notion of a Viksit Bharat, much like armed Naxals were isolated and eliminated.

It is worth remembering that the Left Parties had jointly written to the Prime Minister last year to halt the extra-judicial killings in the name of Operation Kagar. Despite the Maoists declaring a unilateral ceasefire and repeatedly urging the government to consider their appeal for dialogue, the Union and BJP-led state governments chose not to pursue a solution through talks. What followed was an inhuman policy of killings and annihilation.

If the misguided Maoists, who strayed down the wrong path and chose undemocratic means to pursue their goals, were exterminated by a policy of state terror by the Modi government, the threat of identifying and isolating Dimagi Naxals is a threat aimed at all left and democratic forces and, indeed, all those who raise questions and refuse to subscribe to the ‘official’ narrative. It signals an assault on free thought in the offing.

The labels of tukde-tukde gang, urban naxal, andolan jeevi, etc. were used on those who were persecuted by the state in various cases, such as the Bhima Koregaon case, the Delhi riots case, and the Newsclick case. The surveillance, doxxing, threats and retaliatory violence against the youngsters who had taken part in the protests at Jantar Mantar, or are continuing the struggle, indicate that the targeting will continue with renewed vigour. Our task is to organise and resist.