Communist ideology should end: HM Shah

RAIPUR: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said the country needs to get rid of the
“destructive” communist ideology at the earliest and appealed to Naxalites to lay down their arms,
assuring them a red carpet from the government.
Addressing a conclave titled ‘Chhattisgarh@25 Shifting The Lens of Organiser Weekly’ in Nava
Raipur, Shah said the Maoist problem cannot be linked to the lack of development or considered
merely as a law-and-order issue.
“Left-Wing Extremism is an ideology-driven challenge,” he added.
Shah said the people of India should understand the truth of this ideology.
“Wherever communists remained in power, they could not bring development. Communist ideology
is an ideology indicative of destruction, and the country is required to get rid of it immediately,” he
added.
Shah said the communist ideology is no longer present in democratic politics.
“It does not exist in Tripura and Bengal (both of which had several communist governments in the
past). In Kerala (currently ruled by the CPM-led LDF), it is surviving to an extent; however, people
have started the change from Thiruvananthapuram (referring to BJP winning civic polls in the Kerala
capital),” he added.
Shah appealed to Maoists to lay down their arms, saying the government doesn’t want to fire a
single bullet and will welcome those who surrender “with a red carpet”.
Mounting a strident attack on Left Wing Extremism, he said the failure to correctly assess the Maoist
problem would amount to injustice to future generations.
Some thinkers have spread the misconception that the Maoist problem is linked to development and
that it is an issue of law and order, Shah added.
He cited development data and statistics of the 1980s, when the Maoist problem emerged and
spread in areas in Telangana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, especially Bastar, Andhra Pradesh and
Odisha’s border districts, to drive home his point.
“At that time, there were more than 100 districts more underdeveloped than Bastar. If the root
cause of the problem is development, then when the problem grew, why did it not grow in those
100 districts that were more underdeveloped than Bastar? Some people call it a law-and-order issue.
I do not agree with this either,” he said.
Before the emergence of the Maoist problem, Bastar’s law-and-order statistics were much better
than those of many districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Shah pointed out.
“This is not linked to law and order and development. I can debate with anyone and prove with facts
and evidence that this is an ideology problem. Those who say there is no ideological problem should
explain why this movement was named Maoism. Because within this ideology lies the belief that
solutions to problems emerge from the barrel of a gun,” he said.
This ideology is not in keeping with the spirit of the Indian Constitution, in which the solution to
every problem emerges through debate and democracy.
“They (Communists and Naxals) handed weapons to poor tribal youth and raised the slogan of a Red
Corridor from Tirupati to Pashupatinath. And for four-and-half decades, they blocked development
in the region,” he said.
Shah said he has no hesitation in saying that if Bastar was not affected by the Maoist problem, it
would have been the most developed district in the country.
“After 10 years, look at Bastar. It is going to become the most developed tribal region,” Shah
asserted.
Hailing the fight against Naxalism, he said 90 per cent of the area influenced by them had become
free and the menace would be uprooted completely by March 31.
Meanwhile, Amit Shah today said that security-centric strategy, infrastructure development, and
disruption of Maoist financial networks have yielded results in the fight against Left-Wing
Extremism, asserting that the menace will be completely eradicated before March 31.
Shah made the remarks after chairing a high-level security review meeting on Left-Wing Extremism
(LWE) in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur, weeks ahead of the Centre’s March 31 deadline to eliminate
Maoist insurgency.
The Home Minister, in a post on X, shared photographs of the meeting.
“Today in Raipur, I held a review meeting with the Chhattisgarh government and officials on anti
Naxal operations. The security-centric strategy, infrastructure development, targeting of the Naxal
financial network and the surrender policy have yielded positive results, and Naxalism will be
completely eradicated before March 31,” he wrote.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, Union Home
Secretary, Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the
Ministry of Home Affairs attended the meeting held at a hotel in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar, an official
said.
Directors general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo
Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and National Investigation Agency (NIA), as well as Chhattisgarh,
Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Telangana, along with several senior officers, were also
present, he added.
Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, comprising seven districts, shares borders with Maharashtra,
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, and has long been considered the strongest bastion of
Maoists. However, the region has witnessed intensified anti-Naxal operations over the past few
years, considerably weakening the extremist movement.
Since January 2024, more than 500 Naxalites, including top cadres such as CPI (Maoist) general
secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, have been killed in encounters in Chhattisgarh,
while around 1,900 Naxalites were arrested and over 2,500 surrendered during the same period in
the state, as per police.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday hailed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
saying it has made an immense contribution to India’s journey before and after Independence, one
that no historian can deny.
Addressing a conclave of Organiser Weekly on the book ‘Chhattisgarh@25 – Shifting The Lens’,
published by Bharat Prakashan, Shah said the positive contribution of RSS volunteers is visible across
every sphere of national and social life.
“..Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has made a very big contribution to India’s journey both before and
after Independence, and no historian can deny this. There is no sector in the country or social life in
which the Sangh’s swayamsevaks have not made a contribution,” he said.
The Union minister said that while the contribution of every citizen is important, RSS, as an
institution, has stood out for its work.
“When we speak in reference to institutions and evaluate them, I can say without hesitation that
among all institutions, the contribution of the Sangh’s swayamsevaks has been most prominent in
every field and in every sphere of social life after India’s Independence,” he said.
“There is no need for anyone to have any doubt about this,” he added.