Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for the isolation of people whom he described as ‘dimaagi Naxal’, underling that they are a threat for the country’s security.
His remarks sparked a war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress, with the latter saying the Prime Minister should have avoided using such words from the Red Fort.
Congress leaders said PM Modi had earlier coined the ‘urban Naxal’ term and has now using the ‘dimaagi Naxal’ for his political opponents. They even said that PM Modi should have elaborated about the term ‘dimaagi Naxal’ and should have refrained from using it while the country was celebrating its 80th Independence Day.
“Is everyone a Naxal? He should describe the phrase ‘dimaagi Naxal’. These kinds of words should not be used from the Red Fort… If he wants, he can implement women’s reservation, but in the garb of women’s reservation, he wants to implement delimitation,” Congress MP Rajeev Shukla told news agency ANI.
However, the BJP defended the remarks. The saffron party also criticised Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and its national president Mallikarjun Kharge for skipping the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort, saying the two leaders have shown the mindset of a ‘dimaagi Naxal’.
The Independence Day celebrations were attended by every top leader and official, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. However, this was the second straight year when Gandhi and Kharge skipped the event.
“Rahul Gandhi is unfit to be LoP. Rahul Gandhi’s mindset reflects that of a ‘Dimagi Naxal’ ecosystem!,” BJP’s national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said on X, claiming that the Congress MP skipped the event because he hates the ‘Vande Mataram’.
Coming to PM Modi’s Independence Day speech, he said and they must be “identified and isolated”. He also said Naxalism and Maoism destroyed the future of several youths.
“For years, those with Naxal mentality had their place in the power corridors. They were in government committees as advisors. Maoist thinking impacted policies. We have succeeded in getting rid of armed Naxals in the jungles, but ‘dimagi Naxals’ (intellectual Naxals) are looking for opportunities to create violence, unrest They want to drag the society on the wrong path,” he said.