Khaakee Bathukulu (part 1 of 2)
Sitaramayya Ari (ari@Oakland.edu)
Wed, 28 May 1997 13:23:41 -0400 (EDT)
Friends:
You probably heard by now about Khaakee Batukulu (lives of policemen).
It is a novel written by G. Mohan Rao, a constable in
the AP police force. The book is published by pratyoosha publishers, post
box no.8, Tenali, 522 201, AP, India. The book was written based on the
experiences of the author's father who was himself a policeman. Angered by
the novel's treatment of corruption in the police department, the
government of AP is harassing the author and prosecuting him under the
charge that he did not ask permission from the higher ups
for the publication of the book. Mohan Rao was demoted from Head Constable
to Constable, was transfered, and his pay was suspended.
This post is in two parts. This part contains a solicitation
requesting you to join us in protesting against the government's
harassment of the author. The protest letter you find below will be
sent to state officials in AP and news media in AP and
elsewhere. After you read the letter, if you wish to add your name
to the list of signatories, please send me an e-mail with your full name
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and e-mail address and a clear statement that you like to add your
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name to the list of signatories to the letter. Please don't include this
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post in your reply.
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The second part (will be posted separately) contains a review, written by
Sri Chowdary Jampala, of the book "Khakee Bathukulu" and a
commentary by Sri K.V. Bapa Rao.
protest letters to state officials and news media
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Dear Chief Minister or other official;
Editor of newspaper,
This letter is to express our support to Sri G. Mohan Rao,
writer of Khaakee Bathkulu, a Telugu novel about the day-to-day
lives of ordinary police constables. We understand from newspaper
accounts that the AP government was offended by the book's
treatment of corruption in the police force and that it has issued
him a show cause notice under APCS (Conduct) Rule 13 of 1964 on the
alleged grounds of violating the service rules by not
seeking permission from his higher ups to publish the book. Mr. Mohan
Rao was also transfered solely for this reason and his pay was
suspended. We are distressed by these actions of the state government.
While these actions are clearly in violation of the freedom of
expression cherished in democratic societies, we also find it
interesting to read in the newspapers that the current state
government is keen on modernizing the police force and its
adminstration, relaxing regulations, reducing bureaucracy, and
institutionalizing an open and transparent democratic government,
easily accessibile and accountable to all it's citizens. We
strongly believe that the show cause notice served on Mohan Rao
not only runs counter to the laudable goals of the government but also
acts as a catalyst in nourishing secretive and undemocratic
practices in our public institutions.
It is our view that Sri Mohan Rao performed a patriotic service
to the Telugu people by exposing the corruption in the police force
(treating police corruption so authentically in his novel).
By publishing Khakee Bathukulu, he provided the citizens a
privileged view, otherwise not possible, of the lives of
ordinary people in the police force. Mohan Rao's novel enables
us to empathize with the police constables and promotes a much
needed understanding of their lives. We believe that the state should
learn from this novel and and change the police force and its
procedures in such a way that it becomes more democratic,
self-reformatory, accountable, and disciplined.
Above all, if we wish to be recognized as a civilised society,
we should have a government that recognises and values the freedom of
expression of individual citizens. The government should respect the
right of citizens to express opinions favourable as well as
unfavourable to it. The current actions of the government against
Mohan Rao demonstrate a lack of understanding, on the part of
the government, of the paramount importance of free speech in
democratic societies.
We demand that the government
a) Withdraw the show cause notice issued to Sri Mohan Rao.
b) Revoke the suspension order, and fully restore all his
back dues and service benefits.
c) Reinstate him to his prior position in the department
with all due respect and honor.
d) Review and change the adminstrative procedures and practices so that
the police force functions as a democratic institution
and all police personnel including those in lower ranks
are treated with respect and dignity. As a part of this
effort we call on the government to revoke archaic rules such as
the ones under which Mohan Rao is being prosecuted.
Finally, we hope that our government pays close attention to, and
respects opinions from ordinary people like us and acts upon them
with courage and sincerity.
Sincerely,
(signature of one of the people listed below)
(postal address of the signatory)
This letter is authorized by the individuals whose names and e-mail
addresses follow:
name address
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Prasad Chodavarapu prasad@acm6.me.uiuc.edu
Srinivas Babu M. babu@ds5500.cemr.wvu.edu
Srinivasa Rao Kalasapudi Rao@lij.edu
Sitaramayya Ari ari@Oakland.edu
Bapa Rao K. V. brao@usc.edu
Venkateswara Rao Veluri: rveluri@worldnet.att.net
Chukka Srinivas srinivas@hpanvl.an.hp.com
Prasad N. V. Tata PrasadT@MOCR.OAPI.COM
Chowdary Jampala cjampala@quark.dayton.net
Uday Bhaskar Nandivada srijna@hotmail.com
Lakshmi Narasimham Paranandi nlp55@cas.org
Syamala Rao Tadigadapa STADIGAD@us.oracle.com
Sambasiva Rao Kotapati rkotapati@eagle.navsses.navy.mil
Srinivas Paruchuri sreeni@ktpsp1.uni-paderborn.de
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regards,
Sitaramayya Ari.