PM Modi Marks First Naxal-Free Diwali With Forces in Bastar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent Diwali with security personnel at the CoBRA Operations Base, Karanpur, in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on 8 November 2026. That base has been the training ground and the launch pad for anti-Naxal operations in Bastar and Abujhmad. He handed out sweets to the jawans and told them this was the first festival of lights after every district of the country became free of Naxalism.

Why this Diwali was different

The Prime Minister called the year's Diwali special because India had, he said, won a battle against Maoist terror that had run for decades. He added that for the first time in 47 years no CRPF jawan was lost on duty during the preceding year, and put that down to firm policy and the courage and restraint of the forces. Thanks were offered on behalf of 140 crore citizens to men and women of the CRPF, CoBRA, BSF, ITBP, SSB, IRB, the state police forces, the Bastar Fighters commandos and the women fighters, along with greetings to soldiers on the frontiers.

The years before

Looking back at the worst years, he said Left-Wing Extremism had held sway over more than 230 districts in close to 20 states, among them Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Attacks in a single year ran as high as 2,000, more than 1,000 personnel died in Chhattisgarh alone, and in the two Dantewada attacks of 2010 as many as 76 CRPF men and 44 villagers were killed. In the stretch from 2004 to 2013, he said, more security men were martyred each year than Naxals neutralised, which emboldened the Maoist leadership.

Development in the affected belt

Operations ran alongside a special development drive in the affected districts. It laid more than 15,000 kilometres of roads, put up over 9,500 mobile towers, and set up nearly 175 Eklavya schools, about 50 ITIs and 50 Skill Development Centres, besides post offices, bank branches and cash machines. Under PM JANMAN, water, power and roads reached remote tribal hamlets for the first time, and Naxals who surrendered were rehabilitated. The Prime Minister pointed to the Bastar Olympics now under way as the sign of the change, children in the region taking to sport rather than guns. He also cited a World Bank report released just before the festival, which showed 50 crore Indians moving out of extreme poverty over 12 years.