India’s Modi says armed Maoists are fading, but warns threat remains from ideological supporters

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on Saturday that India's long-standing Maoist insurgency was nearing its conclusion, warning that the country now faces a new threat from individuals who support the movement's ideology. Speaking from the Red Fort on India's 79th Independence Day, Modi stated that Maoist violence was "breathing its last" after years of security operations against the insurgency, which once posed the country's most significant internal security challenge, claiming thousands of lives.

Also known as the Naxalite movement, it challenged state authority across central and eastern India for decades, leaving a trail of casualties among civilians, rebels, and security forces. Modi referred to these new ideological supporters as "dimagi Naxals," or people who align with the movement's ideology, and warned that they were seeking opportunities to sow violence and unrest, steering society onto the wrong path.

In addition to his warning, Modi unveiled a series of measures aimed at boosting self-reliance in various sectors, such as defense and agriculture, with a focus on empowering the youth. This outreach comes in the wake of a youth-led protest movement, the Cockroach Janta Party, which emerged as a rare challenge to Modi's government and led to the resignation of his education minister.

While Modi did not directly address the protests, he repeatedly emphasized initiatives targeting young Indians, including AI skills training and free online coaching for competitive exams.

Modi highlighted India's transformation from a fragile economy to the world's fastest-growing major economy over the past decade, reaffirming his government's goal of turning the country into a developed nation by 2047, marking the centenary of its independence. The Naxalite movement, inspired by Mao Zedong's revolutionary principles, originated in 1967 with an uprising in the village of Naxalbari in eastern India and evolved into a decades-long armed rebellion advocating for the rights of landless farmers, rural poor, and Indigenous communities.

Modi attributed the Maoist movement's destruction of generations of young people's futures to his government's security and development policies, which have significantly reduced Maoist violence since his administration began in 2014.