New Delhi, Mar 21, 2025, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Mar 21: Noting that insurgency in Northeast used to be among the biggest challenges for the country, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that the region is by and large peaceful now.

Ever since the Modi government came to power at the Centre, a new era of development has been ushered in there, he said winding up a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the working of the home ministry.

Shah said, "We have signed about 19 peace accords since 2019, while about 10,000 militants have surrendered in this period in the Northeast."

He asserted that the government has zero tolerance policy towards terrorism and accused previous governments of not taking action against Naxalism. "By March 21, 2026, Naxalism will end in this country," he said. 

Shah also said the Narendra Modi government fulfilled the dream of the architects of the Constitution by abrogating Article 370.

"Article 370 was the basis of separatism in Kashmir. But I also thank the architects of the Constitution, they made the provision temporary, and the way to abrogate it was also included in the Article," Shah said.

"But due to vote bank politics and stubbornness, Article 370 continued. On August 5, 2019, Article 370 was abrogated. The dream of the architects of our Constitution, was that there can't be two heads, two constitutions and two flags in the country," he said.

Shah said that besides insurgency in Northeast, the issue of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and left-wing extremism were among the major challenges for India.

"Around 92,000 citizens were killed in four decades. No organised effort was done to deal with these, and the Modi government did it," he said. The home minister said the Modi government has zero tolerance for terrorism.

He also said the number of deaths of civilians and security personnel in terror incidents has drastically come down, while there has been zero incidents of stone pelting in the Kashmir valley. "There has been a 70 per cent reduction in deaths due to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir during Modi govt; terror incidents too fell sharply," he said.

Shah also said grassroots level democracy has been established in Jammu and Kashmir by successfully holding elections in urban and rural local bodies.