Naxals, or Naxalites, are Maoist insurgents who have fought the Indian state in an armed rebellion for decades. The name comes from Naxalbari, the West Bengal village where a peasant uprising began in 1967. “Dimagi” is Hindi for “of the mind,” so “Dimagi Naxal” is the prime minister’s term for people he says hold Naxal ideas without carrying weapons. His government says armed Naxalism has now been wiped out. The opposition says the label is used to brand dissent as treason.
The prime minister has yet again spoken of “Dimagi Naxals.”
That he did so on the auspicious day of Diwali, when all Indians are one, and to an audience of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), is a circumstance most well-wishers of the nation may have thought inadvisable.
Indeed, in a quieter hour, when the Dimagi great leader is alone with his transcendent ruminations, he may, we hope, conclude similarly.
It can hardly be thought constructive for the numero uno, tasked with uniting the nation, to speak derisively of his own people, however disliked, to a militarist conclave.
Be that as it may, here is the point: why does Narendra Modi shy away from debating the republic’s “Dimagi Naxal” number one, namely the most troublesome leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi?
After all, wherever there is real democracy, people debate one another. Indeed, in the oldest democracy, of which we Indians are so enamoured, they debate even within party structures to contest for leadership. Not to mention the constitutional prerogative they accord their Fourth Estate to interrogate them from time to time on their policy and political predilections, and to hold them to account for their misdemeanours.
Many in India look askance at the grave risk Rahul Gandhi is taking in inviting Narendra Modi, the world’s most thunderous public perorator, to a debate on Dimagi Naxalism, nationalism, social and economic policy, leadership lifestyles, behind-the-scenes realities and so on.
After all, imagine the damage his defeat in a one-on-one debate with the almighty Modi would cause, not just to him but to the entire spectrum of the opposition, rendering any further challenge to the establishment unthinkable.
And yet the foolhardy Gandhi persists in inviting Shri Modi to debate him on all such issues, before any moderator and in front of an audience too.
Some gumption, wouldn’t you say?
Even more astonishing, in refusing the debate, think what an opportunity the prime minister is missing to put paid, once and for all, to the “Dimagi Naxal” menace. Once Rahul Gandhi is blown away, who else would find the courage to go on raising an anti-national eyebrow at the numero uno?
Truly incomprehensible is this course of action, or inaction, on the part of Narendra Modi, who could make conclusive mincemeat of the nagging battalions and hidden brigades of hit-and-run “Dimagi Naxals” who tend to get away with one cryptic barb or another.
Why, his devoted “Andh Bhakts” ask, does Shri Modi, the prime scion of the Sanatan, turn away from this invitation to an intellectual “mal-a-yud” that could not but lend finality to the triumph of the Sanatan?
Indeed, even the men and women of the CRPF and other forces may be wondering, in their proud patriotic hearts, why their heroic icon should bypass this bout.
The danger is that Shri Modi’s refusal to take on Shri Gandhi may in time persuade even his legions of followers that, at the end of the day, he lacks the wherewithal to engage in a much-needed “Shastr-Arth” with even the least of the “Dimagi Naxals,” whom he never tired of calling “Pappu” till the other day.
That would be a calamitous dent to the colossal brainpower of the so self-regarding Modi Ji.
Not to speak of the opportunity the nation at large would miss of being both entertained and educated by the debate of the millennium.
A true disciple of the great Adi Shankaracharya, Modi Ji might justly be expected to emulate the pioneering proselytiser and put an even more emphatic stamp on Bharatiyata than the original Guru could in his time. After all, the old guru did not have the CRPF on his side in setting upon a part of the nation.
May the expectant nation, thus, plead with Modi Ji to make haste, please, and put Rahul Gandhi in his place?