PM Modi Warns of "Ideological Naxals" Embedded in India's Institutions in 80th Independence Day Address

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his Independence Day address from the Red Fort on Saturday to declare that armed Maoist insurgency in India has been all but eliminated, even as he issued a fresh warning about what he called “dimagi Naxals” — ideological sympathizers he said have embedded themselves inside government institutions and policymaking bodies.

Speaking on the 80th Independence Day, Modi said Naxalism and Maoism had destroyed the dreams of lakhs of young people and stolen sons from countless mothers over four decades, describing how the movement had held large parts of the country hostage at gunpoint and undermined the Constitution. He declared that the movement no longer retains even the strength to survive.

A New Target: The “Dimagi Naxal”

Where the speech took a sharper political turn was in Modi’s description of a second, less visible threat. He said people with a Maoist mindset have entrenched themselves in the corridors of power, including as advisors on government committees where they shaped policy. He said these ideological actors are now waiting for openings to revive violence and unrest, and are using assorted tactics to steer society in the wrong direction, calling for them to be identified and isolated.

Modi connected the warning to a broader message on internal security, arguing that conflict is no longer confined to India’s borders, and that new forms of attack could strike targets such as refineries, banks, or data centres.

He called on citizens to help draw the country’s youth into the mainstream effort to build a “Viksit Bharat,” or developed India, rather than let them be pulled toward extremism.

Backdrop: The Anti-Naxal Campaign

The remarks followed a sustained security push across the so-called Red Corridor — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh — ahead of a government target to eradicate Left-Wing Extremism by March 2026. Multiple senior Maoist leaders have been killed, arrested or forced to surrender in recent operations. Among the highest-profile was the June 2026 arrest of Misir Besra, described as India’s last active Maoist politburo member, who had carried a bounty of Rs 1 crore.

President Droupadi Murmu had also praised the anti-Naxal campaign in her address to the nation the previous evening.

Echoes of “Urban Naxal”

The phrase “dimagi Naxal” has drawn immediate comparison to “urban Naxal,” a term Modi and other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have used in the past to describe activists, academics and government critics. That comparison carries added weight because the government itself has previously distanced itself from the term in Parliament: in February 2022, then-Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha that the government does not officially use the phrase “urban naxals.”

Modi did not specify in his speech who would qualify as a “dimagi Naxal,” leaving the scope of the term unclear.

Wider Speech: Seven Pillars for Development

The security remarks were set against a broader address focused on economic growth. Modi outlined seven pillars for India’s development going forward: manufacturing; agriculture and food processing; technology and innovation; Gati Shakti-driven infrastructure connectivity; defence manufacturing and self-reliance; green-sector innovation; and India’s soft power, spanning yoga, handicrafts, film, animation, gaming and digital content.