The rise of ‘Urban Naxals’, a term ‘not used by Govt’

More than a month ago, addressing a gathering in Kutch, the PM had spoken in a similar vein: “There was a time when Gujarat was facing one crisis after another. While Gujarat was battling natural calamities… one after another conspiracies were hatched to give a bad name to Gujarat, in the country as well as in the world, and to block investment here.”

Speaking right after the PM, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel spelled out who Modi meant. “… we should remember who were those people who had deprived Kutch from getting the Narmada water for nearly five decades. We all know who those Urban Naxals who had opposed the Narmada dam project were… One of those Urban Naxals was Medha Patkar. We all know which political party these people were associated with.”

The reference seemed to be to AAP, which had fielded Patkar from Mumbai North East in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In 2015, she quit the party.

Then, days later, addressing a video conference hosted by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, the PM said: “I have seen that in the name of environmental clearance, how the establishment of modern infrastructure is hindered… How Urban Naxals, those who are anti-development, had stopped such a big project, the Sardar Sarovar dam.”

The BJP has been using the term regularly since it first became popular after high-profile arrests of activists in July and August of 2018 in the Elgar Parishad case. Probing alleged links of the arrested activists to the violence at Bhima Koregaon in Pune that followed the Elgar Parishad event, police called them Urban Naxals.

Joining the debate, controversial filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri tweeted asking people to make a list of those defending “Urban Naxals”.

In November 2018, the term got the stamp of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, when it said in a statement: “The Home Minister directed the CRPF to carry out an effective and decisive campaign against Left Wing Extremism in the next six months. Action needs to be taken against Urban Naxals and their facilitators.”

The same month, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal “an Urban naxal”. “Some Urban Naxals are plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Arvind Kejriwal is a big example of an Urban Naxal,” he said at a press conference.

When well-known Kannada writer and Jnanpith Award winner, Girish Karnad sported a placard with ‘Me too Urban Naxal’ written on it at a protest to mark the death anniversary of journalist Gauri Lankesh, he was booked.

The term also figured in the annual Dussehra speech delivered by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in October 2018. “Urban Maoism” was propagating falsehood and spreading hatred in society, he said. “These people (Maoists) take strength from the country’s enemies and always malign the nation wherever they go… To establish an anti-national leadership with blind followers solely committed to them is the Neo-Left doctrine of these Urban Naxals.”

Speaking in Parliament in February 2022, Modi accused the Congress of being “trapped by the urban Naxals”, and said its “thought process has been captured by urban Naxals” making it “destructive”. The Congress walked out of the House in protest.

In a reply to a written question by Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Chhetri, though, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy told Parliament in March 2020: “The phrase ‘Urban naxals’ is not used by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.” However, Reddy said, the government’s National Policy and Action Plan addresses Left Wing Extremism in all its manifestations, including urban activities.

Chhetri had asked “whether it is a fact that the Ministry has stated that it will take effective action against ‘Urban naxals’ and their facilitators”, “whether the ministry has defined what constitutes ‘Urban Naxals’ and its definition, who falls under this category of ‘Urban Naxals’.”