Page 16 - NIS English 16-30 April, 2026

COVER STORY | Naxal-Free India

fuelled unrest. The firm and clear policy of the central
government has brought this issue to an end. March
31, 2026, has gone down in history as a date that will
be remembered for centuries to come for having eradi-
cated a decades-old problem from its very roots. Under
a multi-pronged strategy, the central government
implemented a policy characterised by robust security
operations, accelerated development initiatives, and
compassionate engagement. These concerted efforts
by the government played a crucial role in dismantling
the Naxalite infrastructure and its cadre. In fact, when
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge of the office,
India’s internal security was severely affected across
three highly sensitive regions: Jammu & Kashmir, the
Northeast, and the Red corridor affected by left-wing
extremism. For 4-5 decades, thousands of people had
lost their lives due to turmoil in these areas, and there
had been significant property damage. A Significant
portion of the national budget was being spent on man-
aging these hotspots instead of on the development of
the poor. The security forces, too, suffered casualties;
however, after 2014, focused attention was given to all
three critical hotspots, and work was carried out based
on a clear long-term strategy. It is true that Maoist violence

THE GENESIS OF NAXALISM had stalled the progress of
Originating from the Naxalbari movement of 1967 several districts across Central
in West Bengal, it spread primarily across the “Red and Eastern India. That is
Corridor,” affecting states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, why, in 2015, our government
Odisha, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya formulated a comprehensive
Pradesh, and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The year 1971 witnessed the highest number of ‘National Policy and Action
violent incidents-3,620-in the history of independent Plan’ to eradicate Maoist
India. Subsequently, during the 1980s, the People’s violence. Alongside a zero-
War Group expanded its reach to these states. After tolerance approach towards
this decade, various Left-wing factions began to violence, we have also focused
merge with one another, culminating in the formation
of the prominent CPI (Maoist) faction in 2004. Naxalite on boosting infrastructure
violence assumed an extremely grave dimension. The and social empowerment to
corridor stretching from Pashupati to Tirupati came to bring about positive changes
be known as the “Red Corridor”. This Red Corridor en- in the lives of the poor people
compassed 17 per cent of the country’s geographical
area, and a population of 120 million was affected by residing in these regions.
this menace, who were forced to live in abject poverty Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
for years. At that time, 10 percent of the nation’s
population was living under the constant shadow of

14 NEW INDIA SAMACHAR || April 16-30, 2026