Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday celebrated Diwali with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, thanking them for their sacrifices in the fight against Naxalism and describing the festival as particularly significant as the country marked what he claimed was the end of its decades-long battle against Maoist terror.
Addressing personnel at a CRPF camp, Modi said this was the first Diwali since every district in the country had become free of Naxalism. He credited security forces for helping people in once-affected areas overcome fear and enabling a new phase of development.
“This is the first Diwali where every single district in the country is free from Naxalism. This is the first Diwali where crores of our citizens have overcome the fear of Naxalism,” he said.
The Prime Minister also visited the CoBRA Operations Base at Karanpur, a training centre and launch pad for anti-Naxal operations in Bastar and Abujhmad. He said he had come on behalf of the country's 140 crore people to express gratitude for the personnel's dedication and service.
“Bastar is the very land that once suffered the scourge of Naxal terror. But thanks to your sacrifice and dedication, that terror has ended, and a new wave of development has begun,” he said.
Modi also hit out at the previous Congress governments over their handling of Naxalism, alleging that they had treated the insurgency as an “incurable disease” and lacked the political will to confront it.
Citing figures from 2004 to 2013, he said the number of security personnel killed in action each year was higher than the number of Naxalites killed. He said the political will to tackle the insurgency had strengthened after 2014, when his government came to power.
“The governments of that time treated Naxalism as an incurable disease and left it unaddressed,” he said.
Modi said more than 230 districts across nearly 20 states had once been affected by Naxalism, with as many as 2,000 attacks recorded in a single year. He also recalled the 2010 Dantewada attack in which 76 CRPF personnel were killed, and another incident that year in which 44 civilians died. More than 1,000 security personnel had been killed in Chhattisgarh during the decades-long insurgency, he said.
He alleged that influential leaders in previous governments had failed to express anguish over the casualties, even as attacks continued for decades. His government, he said, had taken steps to disrupt the funding of Naxal and secessionist groups, destroy their fake currency networks and choke their supply lines.
Highlighting the gains made in the counter-insurgency campaign, Modi said that, for the first time in 47 years, not a single CRPF jawan had lost his life in the line of duty during the past year. He described this as a victory for the country's policies and the determination and courage of security personnel.
He credited the CRPF, CoBRA, BSF, ITBP, SSB, IRB and state police forces, including the Bastar Fighters, as well as women personnel, for their role in the campaign.
Drawing a parallel between internal security and border defence, Modi said the personnel tackling insurgency within the country played a role as important as that of forces guarding the borders.
“When a nation's internal security is strong, external enemies cannot succeed. However, when internal security is weakened, external enemies also begin to raise their heads,” he said.
The Prime Minister said improved security had helped create conditions for development in Naxal-affected areas, including in education, healthcare, road connectivity, electricity, communication, tourism and employment. He also said those who renounced violence could return to the mainstream, while security forces would act against those who continued to threaten civilians and break the law.
Modi extended Diwali greetings to security personnel deployed across the country, saying their sacrifices had contributed to the unity and integrity of the nation.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
