Govt Clarifies: PM Modi didn’t call Opposition leaders Dimagi Naxals
New Delhi, August 16, 2026: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday clarified that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not refer to opposition leaders as “dimagi naxals” in his Independence Day address, as the political controversy over the remark continued.
In a post on X, Rijiju said the term was meant for people who support Maoists, reject the Indian Constitution, back separatists or advocate separating the Northeast from the rest of the country.
Rijiju listed three categories of people whom he said could be described as “dimagi naxals”: those who support Maoists and reject the Constitution, those who support separatists and Article 370, and those who advocate cutting off the “Chicken’s Neck” corridor to isolate the Northeast.
The clarification came a day after PM Modi, while addressing the nation from the Red Fort on the 80th Independence Day, said armed Naxalism had been largely eliminated but warned that an ideological Naxal mindset continued to exist.
PM Modi said people with “Maoist thinking” had previously influenced public life, government committees and institutions. He urged citizens to “identify and isolate” such people and focus on bringing the country's youth together for the goal of a developed India by 2047.
The remarks drew criticism from Congress, with senior leader Jairam Ramesh questioning the meaning of the term and comparing it with the previously used expression “urban naxal”.
Ramesh alleged that the government had used such labels against political opponents in the past and later adopted some of the issues raised by those it had criticised. He cited the caste census as an example.
Rijiju's latest clarification seeks to counter the Opposition's interpretation of PM Modi's remarks and comes amid an intensifying political exchange over the Prime Minister's Independence Day speech.