Prime Minister’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ Formulation Echoes the British Playbook Against Dissent
By branding dissenters as “Dimagi Naxals,” the Prime Minister revives the same colonial logic once used to silence Gandhi and threatens the constitutional freedoms India’s youth are fighting to defend.
Published on: 19 August 2026, 05:13 am
PRIME MINISTER MODI in his address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on the occasion of 80th Independence Day stated that his government has succeeded in eliminating the armed Naxals in the jungles., While doing so he warned about “Dimagi Naxals” (intellectual Naxals) waiting for opportunities to unleash violence, unrest and create turmoil in society. And so, he underlined the necessity of identifying and isolating them.
“Dimagi Naxal” Constitutes Hate Speech
Such utterances of the Prime Minister outraged the nation. This outrage was manifested in the remarks made in several quarters disapproving the term Dimagi Naxal which is utterly contemptuous and represents a form of hate speech. Senior opposition leader from Congress, P. Chidambaram, declared on X that he was ”proud to be a Dimagi Naxal.” “All cockroaches by definition are,”said Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra. Similarly, Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal took pride for being a “Dimagi Naxal” because he is a “true patriot” and does not fear the BJP. He charged that the BJP would not have spared even Bhagat Singh and B.R. Ambedkar and called them using the same obnoxious term.
The countrywide uproar against Modi’s usage of the term “Dimagi Naxal” became so intense that the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju was forced to issue a clarification that that the Prime Minister never used it against the opposition but at those who stand for Maoists, attack the Constitution, back separatists for restoration of special status for Jammu and Kashmir or seek to sever the chicken neck to separate North East from the rest of India.
Giving a sinister twist to the term “Dimagi Naxals” BJP Rajya Sabha MP Brij Lal called them “Intellectual Naxals” who do not live in forests carrying weapons but wreak havoc by employing their intellect. He claimed that such categories of Naxals appear as professors, teachers, NGO operators, intellectuals, poets and authors and they by their written and spoken words spread violent ideology targeting the youth.