New Delhi, Aug 29: Five rights' activists were arrested following simultaneous raids by Pune police on Tuesday in connection to the Bhima Koregaon violence in January this year. Their arrests sparked outrage from the left-leaning section of the civil society, charging the government of cracking down on dissent. Countering them, a section of pro-establishment commentators justified the police action, saying the arrested activists are 'urban naxals'.

Who are the urban naxals?

The term was coined by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who had written a book last year - 'Urban Naxals: Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam', which is based on his 2016 movie Buddha in a Traffic Jam.

In his book, Agnihotri defines urban naxals as ‘invisible enemies’ of India, who are working an organised manner to "spread insurgency against the Indian state". He further adds that those referred by the term are "all urban intellectuals, influencers or activists of importance".

Why is the Term Trending After Bhima Koregaon Raids?

The term was used by Pune police while justifying the crackdown on the five activists on Tuesday. The officials claimed that they recovered incrementing materials from the residence of the accused, which suggested their links to the banned CPI (Maoist).

Following the raids, the Opposition, along with a section of the Twitterati, slammed the government, accusing them of targeting the pro-Dalit and pro-minority voices under the garb of "security threat".

Retaliating to them, Agnihotri appealed his followers to prepare a list of social media users who are defending the urban naxals.

'Anyone who dares to dissent is an urban naxal'

A counter-attack was launched by influential voices on the micro-blogging site, claiming that anyone who dares to dissent against the ruling regime will be branded as an urban naxal.

Urban naxal, along with "half Maoist" and "love jihad" are terms invented by the right-wing forces to distract the masses away from the real issues, said CPI(ML) leader Kavita Krishnan.

"They are nonsense phrases used to smear activists, intellectuals and basically anyone defending rights of people under attack from the Modi government," she said.

Directly taking on Agnihotri, advocate Suchitra Vijayan said, "If you call living and working with most marginalised is being a Naxal , then I am proud to be one and stand up in solidarity with the men and women who continue to fight for the rights of others, that you also benefit from."

Renowned photographer Madhu Menon urged Agnihotri to refrain from spreading such "baseless" term. Claiming that the phrase urban naxal lacks content, Menon said there is no legitimacy to the claim made by the filmmaker.

Academician Anupam Guha attempted a crash course for Agnihotri on the subject, suggesting that the use of term 'naxal' for vilification of dissenters exposes his lack of knowledge on how the term originated.

Notably, the Supreme Court has stayed the transit remand of the five accused -- Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Vernon Gonsalves, Varavara Rao and Arun Ferreira. They have been confined to house arrest till the bench issues preliminary ruling.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 29, 2018 08:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).