Breaking News:Country must get rid of destructive Maoist ideology, says Shah– What Just Happened

Terming Maoism a destructive ideology, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday (February 8, 2026) said that the country must get rid of an ideology that promotes violence. He said that Maoism was neither linked to a lack of development nor to law-and-order issues. He urged Maoists to surrender, assuring them of a ‘red-carpet welcome’.

The Minister said that Communist ideology offered guns as solutions to problems. “Where Communists ruled, they failed to bring development, and where they promised welfare, they handed over weapons to tribals and spread darkness. This ideology is a symbol of destruction, and the country urgently needs to rid of it,” he said.

He said that Communist parties have been confined to only poll-bound Kerala and predicted their ouster, citing the BJP’s recent mayoral victory in Thiruvananthapuram.

“There aren’t many [Communists] left in democratic politics yet, so one has to look through binoculars. Kerala is the only one left, and it will also be wiped out this time. There are none left in Tripura, none in Bengal, and only a little left in Kerala, but even there, the people have made a start in Trivandrum,” he said.

Mr. Shah, who was speaking at an event commemorating 25 years of Chhattisgarh, said ideology plays a crucial role in politics. “It is ideology that drives governance and guides it towards certain dimensions. That is why Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘I consider politics without ideology to be a sin’. A political party without ideology cannot benefit the State or the country,” he said.

The Minister contrasted the creation of three States, including Chhattisgarh, in 2000 under a BJP-led NDA government at the Centre with the 2014 bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh under the UPA, and said that unresolved disputes between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana showed that running a State was not merely an administrative process but one that required ideology.