New Delhi, 17 August (HS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Congress and senior party leader P. Chidambaram over the term ‘mental Naxal’ used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address. The BJP claimed that within 24 hours of the Prime Minister raising the issue, Chidambaram had allegedly said, “I am proud to be a mental Naxal,” thereby openly revealing his ideological position.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters on Monday, party MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said the country had entered the 80th year of Independence and, at such a significant juncture, the Prime Minister had drawn the nation’s attention to the threat posed by an ideology described as ‘mental Naxalism’.

Trivedi said Chidambaram’s response was evidence that people holding such a mindset were themselves coming forward. He also reminded the Congress of a statement made by former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on April 13, 2006, in which he had described the Naxalite threat as the “single biggest internal security challenge” faced by India.

Questioning the Congress, Trivedi asked why senior leaders of the party were making such statements today when a Congress Prime Minister had previously described Naxalism as the country’s biggest internal security threat.

The BJP alleged that during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the so-called ‘Red Corridor’ expanded across the country, with more than 180 districts becoming affected by Naxalism.

Trivedi further claimed that during Chidambaram’s tenure as Union Home Minister, more than 5,000 innocent civilians were killed, while 1,913 security personnel lost their lives in Naxal violence. He also alleged that more than 92 per cent of the weapons in the possession of Naxalites had been looted from the police.

He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government had given equal emphasis to security and development in Naxal-affected areas. According to him, more than 1,800 bank branches, over 1,200 ATMs and more than 6,000 mobile towers have now been established in these regions, providing residents with access to banking, communications and other basic services.

Trivedi added that more than 22 lakh people in these areas had benefited from the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

He said the government’s objective was to integrate Naxal-affected regions into the mainstream of development. Trivedi alleged that those who were unhappy with the development initiatives and the positive changes taking place in these areas were the ones representing the mindset of ‘mental Naxalism’.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar