Re: Gaddar
Prasad Tata (Prasadt@OTSUKA.OAPI.COM)
Wed, 16 Apr 1997 08:27:20 -0400
Please find the news item in Deccan Chronicle.
Sometime ago I posted some factual errors regarding Gaddar. Here is an
opportunity to correct the wrong information. I still beleive Gaddar was in
a small way associated with Abdhra University Arts, Commerce & Law
College.
Regards,
Prasad
In dialogue with danger
From R Akhileshwari
DH News Service
HYDERABAD, April 12
As Gaddar recuperates from the attack of April 6, his admirers,
followers and friends have heaved a collective sigh of relief. The voice
that has inspired hundreds and thousands of the oppressed, the voice
that spread revolutionary ideology and the voice that instilled fear among
the powerful would sing in protest and in anger once again. It had
refused to be silenced by the gun.
The very fact that someone thought they were better off with Gaddar
silenced showed the power of his song through which he tried to
spread his message of revolt against the status quo.
Gaddar (50) was born Vithal Rao in a Dalit household in Toofran town in
Medak district of Telangana. An engineering graduate of Osmania
University, he worked in a bank for sometime before responding to the
call of revolution. He was underground for several years, during which
time he lived in various parts of the country, learning to listen to the lilt in
the poor`s songs, sharing their anger over centuries of injustice and
inequality, and joining in their chorus demanding change.
Following differences with the PWG leadership over the role in the party
of his cultural organisation, Jana Natya Mandali, Gaddar made a quiet exit
from
PWG and for a year has been in throes of soul-searching regarding his
aims and goals, and the future. Gaddar believes he did not get the
recognition due to him in the PWG mainly because of his caste.
Last year he quit the party which had inspired him since 1970 and which
he joined in 1985. He reportedly wept like a child when he sent in his
letter severing his relations. Excerpts from an interview he gave to
Deccan Herald after his resignation:
Deccan Herald: How has the people`s movement weakened?
Gaddar: Only now the Marxist-Leninist parties have recognised and are
debating the issues of caste, role of women and cultural fronts. The
leadership of the party needs to rise to the occasion and show the way
.... the strategies, policies and tactics (practised so far) were formulated
without taking into consideration Indian socio-political conditions. The
people have been victimised as a result.
If right answers are not given, the party will be wiped out. It is surviving
today because of people`s support and because of the forests to
escape into.
Look what`s happened in Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Nagaland and Manipur...
the movement needs to be taken forward, building structures to support
it.
People like us (the cultural front like Jana Natya Mandali) have had to
bear the brunt of propagating such (misguided) policies.
Deccan Herald: Why did you quit the party?
Gaddar: The leadership has not been able to deal with problems in the
right way... there are no guidelines, their action is mostly defensive... a
certain thinking has come to prevail in the party that individuals don`t
matter, that only people do, and that revolution will go on whoever comes
and goes.
It is a question of self-respect...of individuality. I have an individuality that
I can`t compromise or suppress. This precisely is the individuality which
prompted me to join the party. Why did I leave the other movement
(Ambedkar) and join the party? Because I was promised greater
freedom, I was promised liberation and so I came, risking my life. Yet
today I am asked to give up my individuality.
Deccan Herald: Could you comment on the debate on issues of caste
and women in the party?
Gaddar: Only now a perspective on women`s role in revolution has been
written. So also on the caste issue. My question has been, what have
you been doing for 70 years (since communism was propounded). The
party should debate the issues I have been raising since 1993, in the
interests of mass movements and of the party.
They should tell us why no cadre-level person has risen into leadership
position, why hasn`t a BC, an SC or ST come into the central organising
committee? Why hasn`t anybody from the cadre level made it although
we have been working for the party for 25 years?
We have attracted lakhs of people. To what end? For whom is this
party? The party has not had any strategy to consciously raise the lower
class people... I may have individually fought to overcome the disabilities
of my class, caste and tradition but it was simultaneously the
responsibility of the party to raise (develop) the lower cadres.
Deccan Herald: The risks taken by cultural fronts of a revolutionary party
are as numerous as that taken by the fighters. Your comments...:
Gaddar: We voice publicly the ideology...there is great risk to our lives
too; our 'soldiers` are no less brave nor do they shirk risks and dangers.
At least the civil liberties activists have the support and safety of the
society, the soldiers have weapons to fight with and a forest to retreat
into. What do we have?
For instance, I have been criticising the BJP, Atal Behari Vajpayee in my
songs. I will die if the RSS workers surround me and kick me a couple of
times each. I have no weapon, no retreat, I can`t open fire, can`t
escape...that`s how we have taken on the challenge, and the grave
risks.
That`s why even our enemy says we can face one thousand guns at a
time but can`t face one Gaddar.
Deccan Herald: What are your plans for the future?
Gaddar: Any organisation that is working on a people`s issue wants me
to lend my support and there are so many issues...I get invited to speak
and sing. They are all calling me, saying ''come, let`s change the society,
solve people`s problems, start movements...``
Even as I am debating seriously I have decided that I will lend my support
to all people`s struggles wherever they are being waged, even if it
affects
5 or 10 persons... I want to study all social movements and philosophies
so that I am not 'one-sided`... Lohia, Phule, JP...I want to learn. I also
want to train people in this protest through song. I can`t go and sing at all
places so I have suggested that two of my men will train two of yours,
then they will be on their own, singing, reaching and teaching...
The people`s love for me has not lessened by even one naya paisa. I
continue to get the same love, the same trust of the working class.
Although I have left the party, I have not been rejected or isolated by the
people...that`s a great victory.