Who is a ‘dimagi naxal’?

On the eve of my taking the civil services exam in London in October 1962, the Chinese came down from Thagla Ridge and routed the Indians under Brig. Dalvi at the Dhola Post on the Namka Chu (river). When I reached India House to appear for my first paper, a telegram was handed to me from a St. Stephen’s wit wishing me all success in the “Chinese Administrative Services exam”. By evening, we heard that Tawang had fallen.After the results came out, and I had passed with flying colours, I was summoned to India House for a final interview with the Deputy High Commissioner and his team. The opening salvo was what I thought of the Chinese invasion. My reply was, “What invasion?”The startled Board asked me whether I had not heard of the Chinese invasion of the previous October-November. I answered that I had heard that the Prime Minister had ordered the Army to throw the Chinese out. The Chinese riposted. I didn’t think a riposte could be described as an “invasion”. That should have done me in. Extraordinarily, I was named the best among those interviewed. It was a time when an officer was expected to conform but his mind was free to roam.But the Intelligence Bureau (IB) did not agree. The desk officer, M.K. Narayanan, later told me that he had strongly objected to a dimagi communist being admitted to the Foreign Service. But every time he thought he had won the argument, yet another VIP letter would land on his desk, obliging him to start all over again.What saved me was that Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the President, who had known my mother well, received me in his family apartments on the day I landed back in India. He said he had only one question to ask: had I joined the Communist Party in Britian? I replied that I couldn’t have because the British Communist Party did not admit non-Britons and, as our IB knew, I was not a member of the Communist Party of India.At that, the President closed the matter recalling that when he was presiding over the Rajya Sabha, the Prime Minister had informed the House that a civil servant could vote for any party, including the communists, but could not join any political party, not even the ruling party.Unfortunately, that was not that. I ran around for three more months before the same Prime Minister who had earlier agreed with the IB now ordered that I be taken in. Perhaps the government changed its mind because, as a friend of mine remarked, they had found that while I was indeed a Marxist, I was of the Groucho Marx variety.That is how “dimagi naxals” were treated by the Jawaharlal Nehru regime. The term did not, of course, exist then. Persons of my ilk were referred to as “leftist intellectuals”. Although challenged by most others, we were left to stew in our own mess while the country got on with more sensible policies than those we were advocating.Forty years later, my credentials were regarded as sufficiently impeccable for me to take my oath of office as a Cabinet Minister. The government was led by Dr Manmohan Singh, who had no sympathy for lefties, but he designated me Minister for Panchayat Raj, the Ministry directly dealing with grievances over grassroots governance in the tribal belt running across the belly of India, from Odisha in the east to Maharashtra in the west.As Minister, I was much impressed with a report by the Debu Bandyopadhyay Expert Committee, set up by the Planning Commission, that persuasively argued the case for regarding the failure of grassroots governance as the root cause of naxalism in the forest areas and underlining that the key to restoration of durable peace lay in implementing in these scheduled tribal areas The Provisions of The Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), 1996, extending the framework of the 73rd amendment to the Constitution.When I was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2010, I was present when the leading light of the saffron brigade described people like me as “half Maoists”. I retorted that it was an honour to be labelled a half-Maoist by a full-fledged fascist. The BJP closed down the House for three days.And now we have Prime Minister Narendra Modi upping the ante from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the very day we celebrate being born into that “heaven of freedom…Where the mind is without fear”.Our PM of 12 years’ standing has called on everyone to “identify” and “isolate” these “dimagi naxals”. From the context of his remarks, he appears to suggest that the purpose of this patriotic exercise is to “eliminate” them as he claims his government eliminated the armed naxalites in the forests of central India.Two questions immediately arise: Who are these “dimagi naxals”? And who is to “identify”, “isolate”, and “eliminate” them?While the government is yet to define who it regards as “dimagi naxals” (PMO’s official translation reads “mental naxals”, an adjective that usually stands for those who are “off their heads”), a BJP MP, Shri Brij Lal, who had earlier served as Director-General of Police in Uttar Pradesh, has provided a working definition.They are, he says, “urban/intellectual figures (professors, teachers, NGO heads/operators, intellectuals, poets, writers) who do not carry arms but use articles, conferences, and seminars to spread ideology, especially among youth; create distrust in institutions (judiciary, security forces, Constitution), and are, therefore, more dangerous than forest-based armed naxals”. To the best of my knowledge and belief, he has not been refuted by the authorities.

Researcher Rona Wilson (right) and activist Sudhir Dhawale, accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, after being released on bail from a Navi Mumbai prison, more than six years after they were arrested, on January 24, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI Readying a “thought police”So, an Orwellian “thought police” is apparently being readied who will intuitively ascertain what anyone is thinking without that person articulating what is going on in his or her mind. And since such a task is not included in police manuals, it would seem that the vigilante corps of the saffron forces is being signalled to winkle out who is thinking what naxal thoughts with a view to first “identifying” such “mental naxals”, then, “isolating” them (this is best done by dragging them to a remote spot), and proceeding then to “eliminate” them.In this new jurisprudence, suspicion is proof and execution need not await a judicial hearing.So, who has the expertise to perform this exacting task? Only the vigilantes, well-versed in lynching as practised by “gau rakshaks”. They are the best qualified to determine on the spot who is thinking what thoughts, then “isolating” them from any outside help, and finally “eliminating” them. The potential perpetrators have honed their skills over more than a decade. So, the PM’s 80th birthday present to the nation appears to be unleashing these former and would-be lynchers on anyone who might think he is thinking private thoughts but is perceived as thinking evil naxal thoughts. So, off with his head!Italy and Germany under Mussolini and Hitler were, of course, the role models adopted by Hedgewar, Moonje, and Golwalkar of the RSS, but Mussolini and Hitler operated in fledgling democracies. Our democracy, on the other hand, is nearly eight decades old and will be difficult to dismantle.Moreover, the Cockroaches have shown a resilience to the crushing heel of police oppression and a conviction in democracy that was conspicuously absent in the Hitler Youth. So, there is hope yet. Moreover, the Cockroaches have so eaten into the foundations of the BJP that cracks are developing in its foundation. A “Night of Long Knives” is in the offing.There is a real prospect of the Modi era ending in 2029, if the opposition gets its act together or even earlier if internecine rivalry, so much in evidence, brings down the saffron roof. We have been warned, but we need not as yet panic.Mani Shankar Aiyar served 26 years in the Indian Foreign Service, is a four-time MP with over two decades in Parliament, and was a Cabinet Minister from 2004 to 2009. He has published nine books, the latest, A Maverick in Politics, the second part of his memoir.Also Read | The war on naxals opens a new frontAlso Read | The Cockroach Janta Party is building a political movement