Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday declared India free of Naxal terror even as he laid the blame for decades of Left-wing extremism (LWE) in the country at the doors of Congress leaders from late Indira Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi.Speaking in the Lok Sabha on the eve of March 31, 2026, the government’s deadline for the elimination of the LWE, Shah said Naxal-sympathising Congress leaders had themselves become Naxalites over time.He rejected as “false” the narrative that the LWE stemmed from lack of development and was a movement against injustice.”I firmly dismiss the narrative that Naxalism stemmed from a lack of development. Naxalism stemmed from the Left ideology which Indira accepted and promoted in the 1970s,” said Shah, alleging that the late PM, who took help from the Left to get VV Giri elected as President in 1969, remained “captive to Naxals for long”.Shah quoted late PM Manmohan Singh’s admission that the LWE was a bigger threat than the terrorism in Kashmir and the Northeast and said, “Yet the Congress did nothing about it. PM Narendra Modi came in 2014 and Naxalism has been eliminated.”Noting that the entire central and state leadership of Naxals had either surrendered or been neutralised, the minister attacked Rahul Gandhi for often being seen with Naxals and Sonia Gandhi for accommodating Naxal sympathisers in the National Advisory Council (NAC) which she chaired.Questioning key appointments for Binayak Sen and PM Rural Development Fellowship for Mahesh Raut, a wanted Naxal, Shah asked, “When the government of the day was patronising Naxals and their sympathisers, how could their morale be broken.”Shah credited the CAPF, CRPF, Chhattisgarh Police, District Reserve Guard and tribals for the milestone of elimination of LWE terror and singled out Rahul for a political attack.”Rahul has often been seen with Naxals and their sympathisers. Many frontal organisations participated in his Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Shah said, mentioning a 2010 Odisha meeting between Rahul and Lado Sikoka; a 2018 Hyderabad meeting between the Congress leader and Naxal associate Gomandi Vittal Rao; and a May 2025 meeting he had with the Coordination Committee of Peace.Shah also slammed Rahul for reposting a video featuring pro-Hidma slogans after the Naxal leader’s death. “Rahul reposted slogans favouring Hidma, the man who killed 172 jawans. People will answer them at the hustings,” said Shah, linking the rise of the CPI in India to the Russian Communist revolution and the birth of “China-backed CPM” to divisions in the Russian and Chinese communist streams.Shah also took swipes at “urban Naxals” and said, “I am a born Hindu and believe in karma. Those who sympathised with Naxals even with words are as much sinners as are armed cadres.”The Home Minister added, “The so-called champions of human rights never speak of the rights of the mother whose child Naxals armed or of the girl who they abducted and who has not seen lipstick, nail polish and henna her whole life until now.”Shah said the government would talk to Naxal cadres who surrender but would answer the violent ones with a bullet. “Those who have surrendered are undergoing rehabilitation,” the minister informed Parliament.