'Must apologise': Rijiju invokes Manmohan Singh to defend PM Modi's 'dimagi naxal' remark

NEW DELHI: Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s “dimagi naxal” remarks by invoking former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s 20-year-old assessment of the threat.In a social media post on X, Rijiju shared former PM’s speech in which he had said that “naxalism is the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country.”“Congress party must apologise & say sorry to the Family of former PM Dr Manmohan Singh ji,” Rijiju said.This comes after PM Modi, during his Independence Day speech, said that while Naxals who took up arms in the jungle have been eliminated, there are also “dimagi naxals”, who are in various parts of the country and need to be “identified and isolated.”“For years, people with Maoist thinking were there in public life, even in government committees this thinking had affected various institutions and initiatives. My dear countrymen, we have been able to curb and free the country from ‘hathariya naxal’ (armed naxal),” The Prime Minister said.“Even if these naxals are gone, but the ‘dimagi naxal’ (people with naxal thinking), are looking for an opportunity, looking to see ways of violence, and trying to drag the country to a wrong path. We need to identify these dimagi naxal, isolate them, and bring the youth together for a developed country,” he added.The opposition latched on to PM Modi’s remarks and dismissed it as a hollow political rhetoric.Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the term carries no real substance, drawing a parallel to previous debates surrounding the phrase “urban naxal”.“Two or three years ago, he (PM Modi) called his political opponents ‘urban naxals’; at that time, the question arose in Parliament as to what the definition of ‘Urban Naxal’ was. The home minister replied that there is no such thing as an ‘urban naxal,’ nor is there any definition for it. Today, the Prime Minister is using the term ‘mental naxal’ (ideological Naxal) for his political opponents from the Red Fort,” Jairam Ramesh alleged.

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