PoliticsInternal security
Modi at CoBRA base in Bastar: first Diwali with every district free of Naxalism
The Prime Minister spent Diwali with CRPF, CoBRA and state police personnel at Karanpur, told them "every soldier is a part of my family" and credited them with ending the Maoist threat.
Key points
- Modi celebrated Diwali with security personnel at the CoBRA Operations Base in Karanpur, Bastar.
- He said it was the first Diwali when every district of the country is free from Naxalism.
- It was his 13th straight Diwali with the armed or security forces, a practice begun at Siachen in 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent Diwali on Sunday with security personnel at the CoBRA Operations Base in Karanpur in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, and told them the country had won its long fight against Maoist violence.
“Every soldier is a part of my family,” he said. The personnel present were from the CRPF, its jungle-warfare unit CoBRA and the state police.
“First Diwali” free of Naxalism
Modi said this was the first Diwali when every district of the country is free from Naxalism. “This is the first Diwali when crores of countrymen have overcome the fear of Naxalism,” he said, and added that a large share of the credit belonged to the forces in front of him.
“The battle against Maoist terror and Naxalism was not an easy one,” he said. He recalled that about 230 districts in roughly 20 states had been affected, that there were around 2,000 attacks in a single year, that 76 CRPF personnel were killed in the 2010 Dantewada attack and that more than 1,000 security personnel had died in Chhattisgarh.
Political will and a new phase
Modi said the political will that had been missing in the country for this task was strengthened in 2014. Bastar, he said, was now in a new era of development after the threat was removed. He also said the role of the internal security forces is as vital as that of the armed forces on the borders: “When a nation’s internal security is robust, external adversaries cannot succeed.”
The Karanpur base was a training centre and launch point for counter-Naxal operations in Bastar and the Abujhmad forest, once among the main Maoist strongholds.
Reports from the event also said Modi warned that “dimagi Naxals”, his term for those who share the ideology without carrying weapons, remain present in political ranks. The full text of that part of the speech was not available when this report was written.
A tradition since 2014
It was Modi’s 13th consecutive Diwali with the armed or security forces. He began at Siachen in 2014 and last year was aboard INS Vikrant off Goa. He had announced the Bastar visit on Sunday morning, saying that where Naxalites spread terror until recently, development was now in bloom.
Modi also extended Diwali greetings to security personnel across the country, speaking, he said, on behalf of 140 crore Indians.