By N Chandra Mohan, The writer is an economics and business commentator based in New Delhi
It is no doubt a momentous occasion when the Union home minister—who announced last year that Naxalism or left-wing extremism (LWE) would be eradicated by March 31, 2026—stated in Parliament that this movement has been more or less wiped out. A six decades-old movement that had its origins in agrarian unrest in Naxalbari, West Bengal, spread to a red corridor across 12 states including Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Kerala, parts of Karnataka, and three districts of Uttar Pradesh. Some of these have plentiful reserves of coal, iron ore, aluminium, manganese, among others, and are tribal heartlands.
At its height, LWE’s sway extended over 150 districts accounting for 40% of India’s geographical area and 35% of its population and was considered by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the gravest internal security threat to the nation. The big factor of change is that LWE since then has steadily weakened as the number of most affected districts is down to only two—Bijapur in Chhattisgarh and West Singhbhum in Jharkhand. Between 2024 and 2026, 706 extremists were killed in encounters and thousands were arrested or surrendered, including top leaders. Only two leaders, Mupalla Lakshmana Rao (Ganapathy) and Misir Besra (Sagar), are still at large.
The fact that this movement is on its last legs indeed calls for a sober assessment. It is not on to claim that LWE has nothing whatsoever to do with poverty or lack of development. Far from it, as the extremists operated in the red corridor where the writ of the State did not extend to the affected districts that were extremely backward. They ran a parallel administration, espousing local demands, and took advantage of the disenchantment among tribals and other exploited segments. In this regard, the home minister emphatically stated that the biggest reason for the defeat of Naxalism is that the State has now reached every village and panchayat in the affected districts.
The extending writ of the State is reflected in the measures for socio-economic development of the LWE-affected districts since the ruling dispensation came to power in 2014. The flagship schemes of the government are being implemented. However, there is a special thrust on expanding the road network, improving telecom connectivity, skill development, education, and financial inclusion of the local population. Thus, in LWE-affected districts, 12,000 kilometres of roads have been built, 6,025 post offices, 1,804 bank branches, and 1,321 ATMs have been opened, besides 5,000 mobile towers. Also, 259 Eklavya model residential schools and 49 skill development centres have been established.
Above all, however, there is no doubt that the major reason why LWE is down and out is that it has been defeated militarily by the State. Extremists who were committed to violent armed struggle were outgunned by the “sustained consolidation of the security apparatus in the past two decades rather than any bold new strategy”, said Ajai Sahni, executive director, Institute for Conflict Management, in a media interview. Elsewhere, he wrote that Andhra’s successful example of an intelligence-led focus on the extremist leadership and augmentation of local police capabilities became part of the Centre and states’ strategy against LWE. The failures of LWE are, overwhelmingly, the result of the State’s capacities for suppression of violence. There is no doubt, however, that the ruling dispensation exercised a degree of ruthlessness in tackling LWE.
A sobering thought is that while the target announced a year earlier has been more or less met—with a dozen extremists in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra surrendering on the final day of the March 31 deadline—the idea of resistance against the State can never be eradicated so long as there is uneven development, displacement of tribals from their heartlands, environmental degradation, and continued neglect of the land question. Other movements will come up even if they are not left-wing extremist.