Urban Naxals

"Congress, Urban Naxals are spreading this rumor about NRC and its discrimination of minorities among people ." Said PM Narendra Modi the other day in a public rally in Delhi. Here One can easily identify Congress member for sure, but one can not easily differentiate or classify an Urban Naxal. Who are they? Why are they Called Urban Naxals? What differentiates them? These are some questions which should be answered.

Urban Naxal is not a new word for the discourse. It has been used vividly many times in debates, Election Rallies, House of People and the list goes on and on and on. If we go back in 2004, when Communist Party of  India(Maoist) published a paper titled "Urban Perspective" discussing its plan to gain leadership in the urban areas of India. This paper became the base to coin this term among people. People who use this term "Urban Naxal", often refer to this paper as it gives an urban based road map to the Naxal movement of Red Corridor. If we look further, this paper largely discuss the mobilization of informal sectors, classes and communities.

Since there is no any defined perception regarding this Urban Naxalism, people use their sense and interpretation to illustrate it and thus it becomes a problematic term. Often People who follow Marxism, Leninism or shows interest in active left politics are labeled as Urban Naxals by critics or in the common narration. Is it correct?

In my opinion it is not correct, because what we saw in the Red Corridor was not actually communism, or the ideals of Marx or Lenin. But an abrupt form of  mixed ideologis like Marxism, Leninism, Maoism etc. Some people believe that the Naxalism (Urban) has a strong Left connection because Communist Party of India was a active political body in the region but CPI strongly opposed the idea of  its own opinionated leaders to curb the imperial and capitalist powers through military powers and the CPI separated on this very ideological conflict. And this can be the ground of  distinction of Urban Naxals in common narrative. Different practices of ideologies should be the ground to differentiate the left ideologue and the Naxals(Urban). Naxalism is indeed a potential internal security threat, and Establishment is working to curb the Naxalism in full wave. But on the other hand the way this term is becoming natural in general dialogue is problematic. Calling a ideologue a term which is not defined yet should not be done or the authority should give a concrete differentiation of Naxals(Urban) and a ideologue of  a particular thought school.