Rahul Gandhi renewed his debate challenge to PM Modi, drawing a sharp response from the BJP. Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "Dimagi Naxals" remarks while addressing CRPF personnel, saying the jawans didn't buy his "lies". He said the open debate challenge remains open and asked the PM to debate on who is anti-national and controlled by foreign forces. In his post on X, addressed to the CRPF personnel, Gandhi said, "Dear @crpfindia, Your faces said it all: you didn't buy the PM's lies." Gandhi said the PM "called us Naxals" and asserted that after the debate, PM Modi "won't have the guts to stand in front of a single jawan again". "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," Gandhi wrote in a post on X. The remarks came a day after PM Modi said that while the armed Maoists have been eliminated from the forests, "Dimagi Naxals" have infiltrated several political parties and organisations and are instigating people against the Constitution and democracy. "We must identify and defeat such elements and secure the country," PM Modi said during his address on Sunday, while celebrating Diwali with security personnel at a CRPF camp in Chhattisgarh's Bastar. Hitting back at the Congress leader, BJP National spokesperson Tuhin Sinha, "Rahul Gandhi ji, 719 CRPF jawans lost their lives in Naxal attacks between 1987 -2025, including 74 jawans who lost their lives on one single night on April 6, 2010. The casualty came down to 0 in the last one year." He said the casualties had come down to zero in the last one year, questioning whether Gandhi had considered the grief of the families of the deceased jawans. Sinha further alleged that the previous Congress-led government's inaction had contributed significantly to the casualties. "Did you care to see the expression of family members of deceased Jawans? Your govt’s inaction had contributed significantly to the casualty figure," he wrote. Central Reserve Police Force, the country's lead internal security force, said that it recorded zero operational deaths during the initial six months of 2026, a first for this period in the last many decades. In an X post, CRPF Director General G P Singh said that this was despite "sustained" and "intensified" operations across various combat theatres where the paramilitary force is deployed. Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ... View More