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It was end March and
the AP state committee camp was shifting shelters from one part of the forest,
across the river Krishna, to another part. They were crossing the river near a
village, in the Kollapur Mandal of Mahaboobnagar district. It was passed
midnight. There were a large number of comrades crossing. Due to the notoriety
of the police in the region, extra precautions had to be taken while crossing
the river. These police have a reputation of partying with sweets over the dead
bodies of comrades. There was a strong wind and the waters were raging. While
most got across safely, one of the puttis (a kind of round country boat)
developed a leak, and began to sink. Eight comrades fell into the raging waters.
While many comrades came to rescue them, four drowned. They were com. Krishna, a
state committee member of 10 years standing, and a reward of Rs.7 lakes on his
head; com. Prabhakar (Devani Sambasivadu), district Party secretary of
Mahboobnagar, who has been with the movement for two decades and had a reward of
Rs.2 lakhs on his head; Com. Bhaskar, who was the secretary of the South
Telengana Regional Jan Natya Mandali; and com. Madhu.
Com. Krishna
The comrades
thoroughly searched the river and finally recovered three bodies — all except
Madhu’s. The bodies were put on a putti and then put on ice used to preserve
fish. Due to drowning the bodies were bloated and unrecognizable. A tag was tied
to the wrist of each comrade, giving his details in Party life, and the bodies
were put in a mechanised boat which was towed to a safe place where the dead
bodies would not be devoured by fish or animals. The Party flag was draped
around each body, and the slips of paper, carrying their identification were
wrapped in polythene bags. Then a note, giving the details of the tragic
incident, was given to a villager to send to the reporters. They asked the
villagers to wait for three days for their kith and kin to come, in which case
the bodies should be handed over to them. In case they did not come they should
be consigned to the flames. With the note having reached, the reporters and
police came the next day and sent the bodies for postmortem to Kollapur.
Com. Bhaskar
Com. Krishna has been
with the movement for 25 years and originally hailed from Karimnagar district.
His details are printed later in the CC statement.
Com. Prabhakar
belonged to a village of Kollapur Mandal in Mahboobnagar district. He had
studied up to the Bachelor’s degree, and had left a wife and child to join the
revolutionary movement. This enormous sacrifice for the cause of the people has
been portrayed by the gutter Telugu media as though he was a heartless person.
He has been district secretary since 1996 and has 40 cases filed against him, of
which 20 were murder cases.
Com. Bhaskar also
hails from Karimnagar district and had been with the movement for 10 years.
Central Committee of
CPI(ML)[PW] pays revolutionary homage to the four comrades who were drowned in
the river Krishna on 27th of March. Comrade Krishna, the state committee member
of AP with a contingent of PGA walked several hours through the thick jungles of
Nallamala in the night and was crossing the river Krishna(the area falls near
Molachintalapalli of Kolhapur Mandal of Mahaboobnagar district) after the
midnight in a round shaped country boat called Putti locally. Suddenly
the Putti developed a leak. The comrades who were in other boats tried
their best to save the drowning comrades. It was quite dark and the conditions
were very odd. Comrade Krishna along with three more comrades were drowned.
Their bodies were searched and our comrades could get three bodies. Later
another Madhu’s body was recovered. Comrade Prabhakar, the district committee
secretary of Mahaboobnagar, Comrade Bhaskar, leader of Jana Natya Mandali ,
Comrade Madhu’s , a squad member were in the capsized boat along with com.
Krishna. When their bodies were brought to the Mahaboobnagar mortuary hundreds
of people paid red homage to the departed leaders.
Comrade Krishna alias
Lingamurthy, affectionately called Linganna who did his PG in Telugu literature,
was in his research in Kakatiya university, Warangal, before he fully plunged in
to the movement. He was the leader of the student movement and was state
vice-president of RSU during late seventies. He went Kurnool as district
organizer and later secretary of that district. Became Regional committee member
of Rayalaseema during eighties worked mostly in building peasant and other
movements in Kurnool district. When the party took decision to shift the main
activity to Nallamala and surroundings, com. Krishna then known as Sankar
shifted to Nallamala. Comrade was married to comrade Padma, who was caught in
Nellore in 1994 along with com. Suryam and torured to death by AP police.
Serving as state committee member for more than a decade, again he was elected
into state committee of AP in the state conference held in December of 2000. We
turn our grief into determination and march with more resoluteness.
Prakash
For CC,
CPI(ML)[PW]
4-04-02
The life of a
guerilla is hard. Facing dangers of, not only the police and the state
machinery, but also nature’s fury in the forests and fields. The mosquito
infested forests of Nallamalla, where this incident occurred, is yet another
source of harassment to the guerrillas. But the PW members like com. Krishna and
the others, fired with a sense of justice and concern for the oppressed masses,
continue their revolutionary activities under the most trying circumstances. Due
to cruel police repression they have to be continuously on the move, and, as
happened on that fateful night, cross rivers even in dangerous circumstances. It
is their love for the masses and hatred for this system that perpetrates inhuman
injustices, that is the driving force for their dangerous lives.
It is ironical that
liberals of various hues, cannot see the dedication of such comrades and their
sense of justice, and equate their violence with those of fascists like Naidu.
How can there even be a comparison between a self-sacrificing comrade like
Krishna and the Naidus who, living like kings in air-conditioned palaces,
minting fortunes through corrupt means and through commissions from the
Americans, for their services to them, in selling the people of AP and the
country to their TNC combines. The media tries to portray the ‘humanity’ of the
government in handing over the bodies, which is in fact their basic minimum
right. After putting out lakhs for their murder, it was little wonder that the
rulers were rejoicing in these deaths while making a show of magnanimity.
The Krishnas are the
cream of this society and the new one being born; lotus flowers blooming in the
muck of a stagnant pond, full of reptiles, insects, worms and weeds. As in life,
so also in death, their memory lives on, like the sweet scent of the lotus
radiating joy to those in their vicinity.
April 19, 2002
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