Modi's 'Dimaagi Naxal' Taunt Backfires; BJP Unveils New Office Bearers as Election Challenge Approaches; India Must Draw the Line with Washington
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Snapshot of the day
August 17, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
Narendra Modi’s 13th independence day speech may have been dull, insipid and tone deaf – he made no mention of the anger of young Indians though that’s the biggest story this year– but at least he identified a new public enemy in the form of ‘dimaagi Naxals’ to rally the faithful around. These enemies had to be identified and isolated, said Modi.
Recognising the concept of thoughtcrime for what it is, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal was quick to say he was not afraid of the Bharatiya Janata Party and that he was proud to be a ‘dimaagi naxal’.
“According to the Prime Minister, a ‘dimaagi naxal’ is anyone who has the courage to question things in this country. Anyone who wants to change the rotten system, wants good government schools, hospitals, electricity, water, sewerage, drainage and good governance, or dreams of a corruption-free India.”
Congress leader P Chidambaram said something similar. “I am a Dimagi Naxal. All cockroaches by definition are,” said Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra. Assam chief minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said Chidambaram and the others were not dimaagi naxals but “pure naxals”. Parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju was a little more circumspect, taking to X to clarify that Modi did not have opposition leaders in mind when he used the term. He added a list of four kinds of dimaagi naxals but then appears to have dropped the third category, prompting some black humour:
Even as Modi warns us of the various ‘schemes’ that the dimaagi Naxals are conspiring to execute, it appears that his party’s government in Chhattisgarh is the one that is actually resorting to scheming and trickery – against surrendered Maoists of all people. Santoshi Markam reports that four of the nine former Maoist cadres who walked a fashion ramp in Raipur on National Handloom Day on August 7 have said they were tricked into performing. The women were lied to – they were told they were being taken to a tailoring training programme. A government official claimed to Markam that the authorities paid the women Rs 10,000 for their trouble, but four of them said they never received any money. They also seem to have been made to sign documents in Hindi, which they do not speak all that well.
It took BJP president Nitin Nabin seven months to put “his” team in place but the fact that he announced the names of 65 office holders today – after the ‘cockroach’ protest haw exposed the party’s vulnerability – suggests the list was drawn up by Modi and Amit Shah. The duo are anxious about Uttar Pradesh, which goes to the polls in six months, but also the ability of the party to battle the negative perceptions ab
