Rahul Gandhi challenges Modi to debate on anti-national, foreign influence claims

NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday renewed his challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a public debate on who is "anti-national" and who is "controlled by foreign forces", a day after PM Modi warned security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Bastar about what he called 'DimagiNaxals'.

In a post on X addressed to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha claimed that the personnel listening to the Prime Minister's speech did not believe his assertions.

"Dear @crpfindia, Your faces said it all: you didn't buy the PM's lies. He called us Naxals. My challenge stands. Let him debate me on who is anti-national and who is controlled by foreign forces. Any time, any place. My guarantee: after the debate, the PM won't have the guts to stand in front of a single jawan again," he wrote.

The post followed PM Modi's visit on Sunday to a CoBRA operations base at Karanpur in Bastar, where he celebrated Diwali with security personnel involved in the campaign against Maoist insurgents.
In his address, PM Modi said the defeat of armed Naxal groups did not mean the threat was over.

"We must remember one thing. Naxalites have been eliminated, but the threat is not yet over. While armed Naxalites have been wiped out from the forests, 'DimagiNaxals' have taken control of several organisations," he said.

PM Modi also described this year's Diwali as the first after what he called the country's victory over the decades-long Maoist insurgency. He said every district had become free of Naxalism and credited security personnel with the government's gains against armed groups. �"Z NEWS