Revolutionary poet Gaddar survives murderous attack

M S Shanker in Hyderabad

Gaddar, the revolutionary poet of the outlawed People's War Group, had a miraculous escape on Sunday evening when he was shot at by assailants at home. He is recovering at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences and "looking cheerful", doctors said.

The attempted murder caused some tension in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, especially after Gaddar claimed that his attackers were policemen in plain clothes.

On Sunday, five youths in their mid-twenties, had come to Gaddar’s house, seeking an audience with the balladeer so that he could settle a land dispute case for them. His wife Vimala suspected some foul play and told them her husband was away. Just then, Gaddar, who had just returned from the city, stepped out of his house, brushing his teeth.

''No sooner did they spot Gaddar, one of them whipped out a revolver and started firing at him. There was nobody there to hear my screams," says Vimala wiping away her tears. Gaddar fell down in a pool of blood and his assailants fled the scene. His son Suri Kiran and daughter Veneela, who heard the shots from within also came running out of the house.

Gaddar was first moved to the Gandhi Hospital where doctors removed four bullets from his body, saying they were unable to remove the last one in his stomach. Gaddar was shifted to the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences where the doctors successfully removed it.

Civil liberties activists, PWG sympathisers and Dalit leaders descended on the hospital premises to express their solidarity with the balladeer and protest against what they described as police repression.

People gathered near the hospital and raised slogans against Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Home Minister A Madhava Reddy. Reddy and Director-General of Police H J Dora.

A worried Naidu was quick to condemn the attack, instructing the health secretary and the hospital authorities to ensure the best care possible.

The AP Civil Liberties Committee and the PWG have called for a.state bandh on Tuesday. There was mixed response to a bandh called in Hyderabad and Secunderabad on Monday.

Gaddar and his wife Vimala claimed the attack was the handiwork of the police. They said the state police had wanted to shift the blame on the PWG for the act, since Gaddar has been suspended from the organisation.

PWG leader Muppala Lakshmana Rao, while issuing a show cause notice suspending Gaddar last June, had accused him of amassing huge wealth using the militant outfit’s name. Gaddar has established a high school in Venkatapuram on three acres of land and is writing lyrics for Telugu films made on revolutionary themes. In his reply to the show cause notice from the party bosses, Gaddar had claimed innocence. It is not known if the PWG has pardoned him. PWG city secretary Vijay Kumar was quick to condemn the attack, though.

In the past few months, Gaddar had annoyed the police by forming a committee to go into the alleged fake encounters that claimed the lives of many PWG members. He held several sit-down strikes before the collectorates of Medak and Nalgonda where many PWG men were killed in police encounters last month. Even the high court has supported Gaddar's appeal that the bodies should be handed over to the next of kin. Hitherto, the police disposed off the bodies quietly without conducting a post-mortem.

The AP high court also directed the state government to record all the encounter deaths and also circumstantial evidence to justify the police act.

The state police has sounded a ‘red’ alert in several parts of Telegana district to nab the culprits. But despite face-saving measures, there is great resentment about what people think are the repressive measures of the police.