Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally in poll-bound Chhattisgarh today hit out on ‘Urban Maoists’ who sit in their air-conditioned luxury homes while the Adivasis suffer and said that Congress is busy standing by these ‘Urban Maoists’.

His jibe, though, has not gone down too well with the Congress-friendly journalists who were visibly rattled.

Just leaving this here: the PM has used ‘Urban Maoists’, a legally non-existent term often used to smear critics of the govt. https://t.co/P709I0sKqc — Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) November 9, 2018

The PM hadn’t named anyone, but some were quick to guess whom he meant.

Who are they referring to here? People like @Sudhabharadwaj gave up their american citizenship to come and work for tribal rights. https://t.co/f6tiZjvSvg — sunetra choudhury (@sunetrac) November 9, 2018

After all, how can anyone who gives up their American citizenship ever be in the wrong?

- Advertisement -

She was explained by a helpful Twitter user that a lot of these ‘Urban Naxals’ are actually quite rich and it would be more profitable for them to give up their American citizenship.

please sir, you are embarrassing yourself with your ignorance. — sunetra choudhury (@sunetrac) November 9, 2018

However, not to give up easily, Twitter user Mihir Jha was persistent.

#UrbanNaxals are recruiting young men/women from top institutes. Telangana Maoist leader (head) is a student of NIT. So Pls, read more before u start analysing other’s knowledgehttps://t.co/erQIhnK2CF — Mihir Jha ✍️ (@MihirkJha) November 9, 2018

And then there were the ones who thought they’d be witty to say that PM Modi implied Ambanis.

finally modi takes on the ambanis https://t.co/fIPevtSjla — Hartosh Singh Bal (@HartoshSinghBal) November 9, 2018

Perhaps Bal forgot that the Ambanis are far from the communist ideology.

The term ‘Urban Maoist‘ and ‘Urban Naxals’ is usually used to refer to those who live in the cities and are most of the times engaged in gainful employment, mostly in the academics or in the media, who engage in leadership, provide supplies, technologies, expertise, information and logistic support.

Recently, in a massive crackdown, residences of prominent ‘civil rights activists’ were raided. The arrests were in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence from last year as well as a plot to assassinate PM Modi.

In OpIndia’s exclusive interview with surrendered Naxal Pahad Singh, he had categorically stated that it is these Urban Naxals who are responsible for the menace of Naxalism and the blood-shed of Adivasis. He had asserted that he personally saw Arun Ferreira in a meeting of the top echelon of CPI Maoists, a banned terror outfit. He had also asserted that he has often heard the names of Sudha Bhardwaj and others in their central committee meetings.