As India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel — the Iron Man who unified the country with diligence, persuasion, and force where necessary — Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are poised to deliver the ultimate homage to his legacy. Patel’s vision of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ was not merely about integrating 562 princely states; it was a resolute stand against internal security dangers that threatened the young nation’s soul. Today, the Modi government’s unyielding campaign to eradicate Left Wing Extremism (LWE), or Naxalism, embodies that same spirit.

By vowing to make India Naxal-free by March 31, 2026, just months after Patel’s sesquicentennial celebrations, India is scripting a chapter of national unity that echoes the Sardar’s iron will. This is no abstract tribute — it is a concrete triumph over decades of red terror, transforming India’s heartland from a warzone into a beacon of development and peace.

Since the 1970s, Naxalism — born from a 1967 uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal — evolved into a Maoist insurgency that has plagued India for over five decades. By the 1970s, it had morphed into a full-blown internal security threat, exploiting socio-economic grievances in tribal belts to wage guerrilla warfare against the state. Far from a mere agitation, it became a cancer that devoured lives, stalled development, and challenged India’s sovereignty across central and eastern regions.

The toll is staggering. Since the 1970s, Naxal violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives, with official data underscoring its brutality. From 2000 alone — the peak period of escalation — the insurgency has killed nearly 12,000 people, including over 3,000 security personnel, 4,000 civilians, and thousands of Naxal cadres. In the broader timeline since 1980, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reports over 15,000 fatalities, with violence peaking in the mid-2000s when affected districts spanned 10 states.

These numbers pale beside the human cost: entire villages terrorised, schools and hospitals bombed, and economic corridors severed. The modus operandi........

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