Demonetisation exposed urban naxals: BJP think tank

New Delhi: Ahead of polls in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, the party's think-tank released a study on October 31, claiming the Modi government's "bold decision" of note-ban broke the "backbone of left wing extremists" in the state and "unmasked urban naxals".

Elections in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases on November 12 and November 20.

The Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) in its research study titled 'Demonetisation: Impact on combating naxalism' said, "The Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's demonetisation decision broke the backbone of the left wing extremists."

For carrying out this study, a research team visited the naxal-affected districts of Chhattisgarh -- Sukma, Bijapur, Rajnandgaon and Narayanpur -- and spoke to tribals and surrendered naxals, the PPRC claimed.

Releasing the study BJP's vice-president and PPRC's director Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said as per the study, there was a 55 percent rise in naxal arrests and surrenders in 2017 after demonetisation, compared to 2015.

On November 8, 2016, the Prime Minister Modi had announced the demonetisation of all Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes and also announced the issuance of new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 banknotes in exchange for the scrapped banknotes.

"A political will was always required to resolve the problem of naxalism by nullifying it and not utilising it, which was shown by the Narendra Modi government.

"Whereas, in the past some political parties either promoted naxals or used them for their interests," Sahasrabuddhe said.

The BJP governments at the Centre and in Chhattisgarh incentivised the mainstreaming of naxals. There is no premium on being rebellious, he said.

The think-tank in its study described demonetisation as a "bold step which broke the backbone of left-wing extremists by curbing its finance."

"Inputs received from naxals leaders as well as police officials give enough evidence to state that demonetisation choked the financial reserves of naxalities," it said, adding that due to cash crunch they were not able to implement their strategies to ambush security forces.

Talking specifically about Chhattisgarh, the study stated that the number of naxal offences decreased by 20 percent in 2017 compared to 2015.

"Demonetisation unmasked urban naxals", the PPRC said, adding various organisations, which were also recently in news, were used by naxals post-demonetisation to launder invalidated currency.

From launching a special assistance scheme for all the naxal-hit states and the bold measure of demonetisation, the central government has taken all necessary steps to curb this problem, the study noted.