Graffiti appear in Delhi weeks after government's Naxalism declaration

By  Anuradha Sharma* 

One month after the Indian government declared an end to Maoist insurgency in the country on 31 March 2026, revolutionary graffiti appeared at multiple locations across Delhi on May Day, 1 May 2026.

The declaration came following a speech by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the Lok Sabha on 30 March, in which he described Operation Kagaar — a large-scale counterinsurgency campaign launched on 1 January 2024 — as having successfully concluded. The operation deployed over one hundred thousand paramilitary personnel, alongside police, Border Security Force, District Reserve Guards, CoBRA and other specialized units, primarily in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. Government figures indicate that approximately three thousand Maoists, including some senior figures, surrendered over the course of the preceding year, and Shah declared that both armed and ideological forms of Naxalism had been brought to an end.

The graffiti appearing in Delhi a month later included slogans associated with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and references to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), also known as CPI (Maoist). One slogan read "Ghar Ghar Se Hidma Niklega" — a phrase suggesting that the movement would continue to produce new fighters. The appearance of this material in the capital was notable given the timing, coming shortly after the government's announcement.

The graffiti appeared against a backdrop of several recent incidents. On 13 April, Rangaboina Bhagya, known as Comrade Rupi, a 46-year-old Area Committee member of CPI (Maoist) and commander in the People's Liberation Guerilla Army, was killed in an encounter in Kanker, Chhattisgarh. Her funeral in Telangana drew large crowds. On 15 April, security forces surrounded a squad led by CPI (Maoist) Politburo member Misir Besra in Saranda forest, Jharkhand, resulting in injuries to at least six CoBRA personnel before the squad relocated. On 2 May, four District Reserve Guard personnel were killed in an IED blast near the Kanker-Narayanpur border in Bastar.

Separately, protests have continued in several parts of the country. In Sijimali, Odisha, Adivasi communities have maintained sustained demonstrations against land acquisition by Vedanta for bauxite mining, with women reported to have physically obstructed road construction in April. In Panna and Chhatarpur districts of Madhya Pradesh, residents are contesting the Ken-Betwa river-linking project, with protests including road occupations and symbolic demonstrations. In Noida, industrial workers staged large protests over wages and conditions, leading to highway blockades and confrontations with police. Following those protests, officials drew comparisons to the Naxalite movement — a characterization that drew attention given the government's recent declaration of the insurgency's end.

Within the CPI (Maoist) itself, public statements by several former members — referred to in various accounts as Sonu, Devji and others — have indicated support for transitioning the party toward legal, above-ground political activity. The party has publicly rejected this position and, according to its own statements, expelled those associated with it, characterizing the shift as incompatible with its foundational commitment to armed struggle.

The graffiti documented on May Day, taken alongside these events, indicates that organized support for the Maoist movement — at minimum at the level of public expression — persists in India's capital a month after the government declared the insurgency over.

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*Student, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi