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It began at 8 am with
troupes entering the ground dancing. 3,000 people participated in the inaugural
function even as 100 intellectuals from Warangal were stopped by the local
police from attending. The martyr’s column was inaugurated by the famous
revolutionary poet Kaloji Narayan Rao. This was followed by a rally, song and
dance programme in the grounds, which lasted over 2 hours. The first day there
was to be a Kavi Sammelan (poetry sessions); the second day a Kala
Jatra (artist’s fair).
The 88 year-old,
Kaloji, maintained his fire. He gave a call to intellectuals to be on the side
of the poor — or else they may get hit in the poor’s armed attacks on the
government. He went on to add, "I have not seen these fighters, and I only
see their dead bodies. I salute these fighters. Not the government or anyone
else solves the problems of the people. The people must prepare to fight. If the
enemy comes, we must stand up against them."
At this Conference,
com. Kanchan Kumar, the editor of the Hindi literary magazine, Aamukh,
was the chief guest. He explained how POTO would be used to attack
intellectuals, poets, writers, etc. He said that the naxalites were fighting for
the poor and that all cultural activists must give them their full support. Com.
Varavara Rao released a special issue of the Telugu literary magazine, Aruna
Tara, on Illanna.
The next speaker was
Hargopal, professor at Osmania University. He said that when the Congress MLA,
Nayak, was killed, all the parties united in his support; but when the poor die
all are silent. And many are being killed. He said that "we must always stay
together against the enemy; we must have a permanent committee, and not
continuously form joint fronts".
Gaddar, the outgoing
secretary of the AILRC, said that since its inception in 1983, the AILRC has
spread to nine states. He explained the level of the enemy’s repression in AP,
saying that lately there has been a wide movement, which has successfully been
able to retrieve the bodies of the martyred comrades. He then spoke at length of
com. Divakar the cultural artist, who became Party district secretary and was
martyred a few months back.
After lunch, 20
comrades read out poems in the Kavi Sammellan. The poems were
interspersed with songs. Adivasis from Nalgonda put in a song/dance programme on
Divakar. After the kavi sammellan cultural performances by the various
units went deep into the night.
On the next day the ‘flag
song’ was performed in the morning for 2 hours in the Kollattam style
(with sticks). Then a 20-member troupe from Jarkhand performed a dance with bows
and arrows — making tiger and snake movements.
After that a play was
performed by the Praja Kala Mandali (PKM) in Telugu on rural dalits. It depicts
a dalit coming to take water from a well, when he is turned away; he goes to the
landlord’s tea shop to drink tea, and is beaten and chased away; he then goes to
mandir to prey, but the pujari kicks him out. Rejected from all sides he sits
down before an Ambedkar statue and begins to think. Even this makes them
panicky, and an SP and collector comes there and demands to know what he is
doing there. Suddenly the statue comes alive and speaks. It says "I wrote the
constitution, but inspite of that events like Karamchedu, Chundur, etc. take
place". He then tells the dalit that the constitution he wrote was
all-false, the answer only lies in the path of struggle, through naxalbari. The
play ends with the dalit killing the SP and the Collector.
The PKM also put up a
song on martyrs, with candles in their hands.
Later Purshottam’s
daughter, barely 10 years of age came and shouted revolutionary slogans.
Purshottam was the lawyer and joint secretary of the civil liberties
organization APCLC, who was killed by police goons over a year back. Later,
another 10-year old girl, daughter of a VIRASAM Nalgonda unit member sang a song
accusing US imperialism of being the main villain in the world today, and the
number one terrorist.
Cultural performances were also put
on by the cultural units from other states. The flag was finally lowered at 9.30
pm by Raj Kishore (Bihar), the newly elected general secretary of the AILRC.
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