‘Come to Bastar and see’: Bastar Maoist victims hit out at Chidambaram over ‘proud to be dimaagi Naxal’ remark.

“My husband was in the security forces; he was an STF jawan. He was killed by Naxals in an ambush in Sukma,” she said, adding that several women in Bastar had lost their husbands in Maoist violence.

Aarti said she was particularly concerned about the possibility of the region returning to the conditions that prevailed during the peak of the insurgency.

“Now, Bastar is Naxal-free. But there are politicians in Delhi who are sitting here and saying things like this. So, we have come here. I don’t want a repeat of what happened earlier,” she said.

Tarun Kumar from Kanker, who lost both his legs and suffered a spinal cord injury in a Maoist attack, said statements such as Chidambaram’s could have consequences beyond political rhetoric.

He said Bastar had endured violence for about four decades, during which thousands of people lost their lives, and that the region was now moving towards peace and development.

“We held a press conference here because Bastar had been burning in Naxal violence for 40 years and thousands of people sacrificed their lives for establishing peace here. Today, when Bastar is moving ahead on the path to progress, do you want to push it back to hell where it was for 40 years?” Kumar said.

He warned that the mindset reflected in such statements could push Bastar backwards and result in renewed violence, firing and deaths of security personnel.

Kumar also recalled the attack in which he was injured on October 9, 2022.

“I suffered an incident on 9th October 2022 and it is going to be almost four years. Several people in the region suffered. Now, Bastar is becoming peaceful and Naxal-free, but after hearing such statements ... we are pained because he should have stood with us but he is speaking in their support and raking up ‘Dimagi Naxals’,” he said.

Another victim, Siyaram from Bastar, said the group had travelled to Delhi because it could not ignore the remark.

“We do not like this. Such statements should not be made. So, all of us decided to come here and say that such statements should not be made,” he said.

Siyaram said the people of Bastar wanted peace and development and did not want to return to the period when Maoist violence dominated life in the region.

“Bastar wants development. Everyone should support it,” he said.

Rudresh Singh, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan who was injured in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, also criticised Chidambaram.

Singh was injured in an IED blast and firing by Maoists during an anti-Naxalite operation. His injuries ultimately resulted in the amputation of one of his legs below the knee.

“Hundreds of people have lost their lives in Naxal violence over the years. A large number of people, who have lost their body parts in various incidents of Naxal violence, are somehow living their life. This is not a joke,” Singh said.

He questioned the appropriateness of making such remarks from Delhi.

“Sitting in an air-conditioned room in Delhi and saying ‘I am proud to be a dimaagi Naxal’ is completely worthless talk. Such remarks should not be made just to increase followers or push some kind of an agenda,” he said.

Several other victims who attended the press conference also expressed their opposition to Chidambaram’s statement and said they were “deeply hurt” by it.

Chidambaram’s remark came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to “dimaagi Naxals” in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort.

Speaking on August 15, Modi said India had succeeded in eliminating armed Naxalism from the forests but warned that ideological supporters of Naxalism were still present in different parts of the country. He called for such elements to be “identified and isolated”.

The Prime Minister’s reference to “dimaagi Naxals” drew criticism from several opposition leaders. Chidambaram subsequently took to X and wrote, “I am proud to be a dimaagi Naxal.”