Modi’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ Remark Is an Attempt to Frame the Next Wave of Dissent as Anti-National
Modi’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ Remark Is an Attempt to Frame the Next Wave of Youth Dissent as Anti-National
22/08/2026
The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde
A government that has just witnessed a leaderless, meme-driven youth movement force it to yield has an obvious institutional incentive to narrow the boundaries of legitimate protest – and to have the vocabulary for doing so ready in advance.
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The phrase “dimagi Naxal” echoes the politically charged label “urban Naxal,” a term Modi and leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have used for years for activists, academics and other critics of the government. It became the operative logic behind the 2018 Bhima Koregaon arrests, in which poets, lawyers, professors and human-rights defenders were arrested under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) on the theory that they had a link to a banned Maoist conspiracy.
One of these 16 arrestees, Father Stan Swamy, 84 years old and suffering from Parkinson’s disease, died in judicial custody in 2021 without ever being convicted and Surendra Gadling, a human rights lawyer from Nagpur is still in jail in his ninth year.
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A Speech Sans Substance!
22/08/2026
Peoples Democracy / by M A Baby
On March 31, 2026, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that India has become free from Naxalism. In his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort on August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed its return.
Quite a few things happened in the intervening four months. But three developments stand out – the wave of workers’ protests that briefly spread across the northern part of the country in April and May; the historic student-youth movement that forced the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan; and the Bankipur bye-election, which resulted in a mammoth defeat for the BJP in a seat it had dominated for over three decades and had only recently been vacated by its National President. These developments have no doubt forced the BJP onto the back foot.
Modi invoking the threat of “dimagi naxals” in his address must be seen in this context. A rattled leader bereft of ideas tends to fall back on rhetoric and tactics that have proven useful in the past. The “dimagi Naxal” jibe is thus a revival of the “tukde-tukde gang”, “urban Naxal”, “andolan jeevi” and similar labels used earlier.
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From ‘Tukde-Tukde Gang’ to ‘Dimagi Naxals’: When Labels Replace Answers
20/08/2026
Counterview.net / by Mohd Ziyaullah Khan
How the politics of insulting dissenters evolved — and why India’s Gen Z may be less willing to accept it. There is something revealing about the political vocabulary of the Narendra Modi era
When students protested, they were called the “Tukde-Tukde Gang.” When intellectuals, activists and academics challenged the government, some were branded “Urban Naxals.” Writers and artists who returned state awards became the “Award Wapsi Gang.” Farmers protesting the government’s policies were described using terms such as “Khalistanis,” “Maoists” and “anti-national.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi also coined “Andolanjeevi” for people he portrayed as professional protesters.
Now comes another expression: “Dimagi Naxals” — ideological or intellectual Naxals.
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Prime Minister’s ‘Dimagi Naxal’ Formulation Echoes the British Playbook Against Dissent
19/08/2026
The Leaflet / by S.N. Sahu
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.
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.
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‘Dimagi Naxal’: When Mind Becomes Site of Suspicion
17/08/2026
NewsClick / by Shirin Akhter
After 79 years of Independence, a democracy should not be asking its citizens to fear the independent mind.
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Naxalism has a specific political history. Its name derives from the 1967 uprising in Naxalbari in West Bengal and the Maoist political movements that subsequently emerged. For decades, the Naxalite was associated primarily with armed revolutionary politics.
Then came the term, “Urban Naxal”.
The expression acquired wider political currency particularly around 2018, when activists, lawyers and intellectuals were arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. The political category began travelling beyond those accused of participation in armed insurgency.
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Opposition says PM Modi’s ‘dimagi Naxals’ remark shows he is ‘rattled’
16/08/2026
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing his opponents as “dimagi Naxals”, or persons with “Naxal mentality”, was a “sure sign of his desperation”, said the Congress on Saturday.
“It is a separate matter that he ends up doing whatever these so-called ‘urban Naxals’ or now ‘dimaagi Naxals’ are demanding or advocating,” said party leader Jairam Ramesh.
The term “urban Naxals” was first used by Union ministers and leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party after several activists and academics were arrested in the Elgar Parishad case in 2018. Since then, the term has often been used to describe some dissidents of the Narendra Modi government.
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Also read:
▪ Mr Prime Minister, Please Stop Heaping Insults Upon Your Fellow Citizens (The Wire / Aug 2028)
▪ Modi’s 13th Red Fort Speech Revealed a Leader Who Has Lost His Mojo (The Wire / Aug 2026)
▪ PM Modi calls for ‘dimagi Naxals’ to be ‘found and isolated’ in his Independence Day speech (Scroll.in / Aug 2026)
▪ McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey! (The Crossbill / Jul 2024)
▪ Amit Shah Tells CRPF to Act ‘Sternly’ Against ‘Urban Naxals’ (The Wire / Nov 2019)
▪ From ‘tukde tukde gang’ to ‘urban Naxal’: How media trials enable the government to stifle dissent (Scroll.in / Sep 2018)
▪ From Anti-National to Urban Naxal: The Trajectory of Dissent in India – How the term Urban Naxal came to being (Newsclick / Sep 2018)
