Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday pitched the idea of “one nation, one uniform” for the country’s police forces while saying it was just a suggestion.

Modi, addressing the first Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session) of state home ministers and senior police officers on its concluding day, also stressed the need to root out all “Naxalism”, whether “the ones with guns or the ones with pens”.

A former BSF director-general, speaking to The Telegraph, stressed that policing was a state subject and contended that India’s diverse climates made a single uniform impractical.

The Prime Minister’s decision to think aloud will have added significance in Calcutta where the police force is clothed in white, not in regulation khaki. Some Trinamul Congress leaders have already expressed concern at the suggestion.

Modi, addressing the meeting through videoconferencing, said: “One nation, one uniform for the police is just an idea. I’m not trying to impose it on you. Just give it a thought. It may happen; it may happen in 5, 50 or 100 years. But let’s give it a thought.”

Modi advocated close cooperation among the states to tackle crime, rendered “borderless” by technology. He said that although law and order was a state subject under the Constitution, it was linked to the unity and integrity of the country.

“The states working together for internal security is a constitutional mandate as well as a responsibility towards the nation,” he said.

He added: “It is the need of the hour to come together and handle the situation. Every form of Naxalism — be it the ones with guns or the ones with pens — Naxals have to be uprooted to prevent them from misleading the youth of the country.”

The reference to “Naxals with pens” has triggered concern on whether it would be misconstrued to equate dissenters with extremists.

Many critics of the Modi government, such as the Elgaar Parishad accused, have been branded “anti-national” and “urban Naxals” and jailed on charges of links with Maoist groups and an alleged ultra-Left plot to assassinate the Prime Minister.

Many students and other young people who protested against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens too have been jailed under an anti-terror law on charges of inciting riots.

Modi said that given the circulation of fake news on social media and its potential to snowball into a matter of national concern, fact-checking had become a must.

“We need to educate people on how to analyse and verify any information before forwarding it. We have to come up with technological advancement to prevent the spread of fake news,” he said.

The Union home ministry had organised the two-day Chintan Shivir to discuss internal security issues such as cybercrime management, police modernisation, increased use of information technology in the criminal justice system, land border management and coastal security.