THREAD - Who are Urban Naxals?

India Today TV filed an Right to Information (RTI) on 21st Jan 20, with Union Home Ministry seeking to know the official status of "Urban Naxals".

@PMOIndia @HMOIndia @NIA

The questions asked in the RTI application were as follows:

- Who are Urban Naxals? Where are they active?
- How many Urban Naxals have been arrested and how - many of them have been convicted?
- Has the government of India ever tried to ban Urban Naxals? If yes, when?

In response to the RTI query the Left Wing Extremism Division in the home ministry said:

"In so far as the undersigned CPIO is concerned, the information may be treated as Nil." The answer to the query was sent under the signature of Yogesh Mohan Dixit.

The term Urban Naxals is not clearly defined. The origin of the word can be traced to the book and a few essays by film-maker and social media opinion-maker @vivekagnihotri 's book, Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam.

The phrase of Urban Naxals is loosely attributed to the people with naxalite bent of mind residing in urban areas and working as activists, supporters and protectors of the ideology while the active Naxals battle it out in the jungles and vast swathes of Maoist-dominated areas.