Ex NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar got attracted to Naxal ideology as student,hung Che's poster in room: New book

Business To Business, New Delhi, 26^th July, 2026:    Former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar was drawn to Naxalite ideology during his student days in the 1970s, displaying posters of Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh in his hostel room and spending time in a remote village in Bihar to understand rural deprivation, according to a new book.
The account appears in "Rebel Bastar: History, Maoism and the Search for Answers in India's Heartland", written by senior journalist and historian Shantanu Nandan Sharma.
According to excerpts from the book, Kumar became attracted to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) while studying at St. Stephen's College in Delhi. The book says he stayed in a village in Bihar to experience the realities of rural India and to prepare villagers for what was then described by the movement as the "annihilation of predatory jotedar and zamindar."
Reflecting on those years, Kumar now describes present-day Naxalism as the "most pernicious and dishonest impact" on Indian youth, saying it has "set back India's political and economic development by years."
"Thankfully, it is now nearly eliminated. And we should ensure that the ideology is also rooted out," Kumar said in remarks cited by the book's author on Friday.
The book traces Kumar's ideological evolution from his early attraction to Left-wing radicalism to his later criticism of Naxalism and its impact on India's development.