Sunday, June 27, 2010

[ZESTCaste] When the dust settles

 

http://expressbuzz.com/magazine/when-the-dust-settles/184347.html

When the dust settles

Asha Menon

First Published : 27 Jun 2010 12:00:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 26 Jun
2010 12:08:50 AM IST

Ganesh was dug out from the rubble of the expansion of a sewer. "Only
his leg, for forensic examination," says a villager, in Andhra
Pradesh's Anantapur district. His parents needed to know if the
decaying mound, inside the memorial for the Communist Party of India
(Maoist) cadre, was their son's.

"The police sent Ganesh's body to this village, to the wrong family,"
says Padma Kumari, of the Amarulu Bandu Mitra Sangam (Collective of
Families and Friends of Martyrs). "The parents fought for a forensic
examination for years, but they were never shown the report. They
still believe their son will return. We know he is dead."

In this war for the Maoist millennium, fear and uncertainty is a given
for the families of the victims. A large part of that grief comes from
the police and government. The former nurse a nearpathological hatred
for anyone associated with the movement. Anyone could be killed in an
"encounter" and anyone could go "missing".

Vaddera Manohar disappeared in 2004. He was 22. His mother Laxmamma
shows an album of his brother's wedding. "He didn't even buy new
clothes," she says. "Why did they take him? He was working for the
people."

Manohar and his friend Mallesh were active in politics in their
Dalitmajority slum in Kalwala, Mahbubnagar. "People here value
education and send their children to colleges far away," says
Narasimalu, district president of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties
Committee. Manohar and Narasimalu's brother Mallesh were in a
Bangalore college when they joined the movement. Both were arrested
and released in 2004.

"When they were released, I went to receive them along with three
other fathers," says Timmanna, Manohar's father. "Plainclothes
policemen hijacked our auto, blindfolded us and separated us from our
sons. We fathers were bundled into jeeps and dropped off in the night
on the road to Srisailam." They never saw the boys again.

"We filed petitions with the National Human Rights Commission, the
court and met MPs. The AP High Court instructed the police to trace
them and file a monthly report on the progress. My son is still
missing." Laxmamma believes he is alive. It is a fragile hope. Her
relative's teenage son, Venkatesh was killed in an "encounter".

"Mothers suffer," says Padma. "They always remember the beautiful
moments they shared with their children - and the police hand over a
body they do not even recognise. I met a mother once who was sent her
son's dead body. After ten years, she sees his mutilated and
decomposing body. She could not even hold it and cry, his skin would
peel off."

Powerful defeated

Patel Sudakar Reddy's mother Bojamma, in Mahbubnagar's
Kurthiravulacheruvu, is the antithesis of the helpless Laxamma. At
least ten men run around to get her a chair and entertain her guests
as she sits for the interview. The former Central Committee member is
the third of nine children in a landowning family with Congress
connections.

"He was always different. He insisted on helping the farmhands. I
never understood," she says. "When he left to work for the party in
1984, he did not tell anyone. His friends who saw him off at the
station told us." They saw him more than a decade later, after a
sevenyear term for arms procurement. "He never kept in touch. He did
not even come for his father's funeral." When Sudakar was killed in
May 2009 in an "encounter", and the party alleged that it was staged,
no one from his family pursued the case.

Sometimes it is indifference, sometimes resignation. Kumari's house is
in Akramam, a village with a revolutionary past. Her brother who once
saw the Jana Natya Manchali perform, encouraged her to join the
troupe; her parents did not fully comprehend the enormity of her
decision. "Singing, meeting," is how Anjamma her mother sums up her
daughter's life. "She went at 13, for 22 or 25 years and came back a
corpse. She died of malaria." Did she try to stop her? She shrugs.

"At least she sang good songs," says her ageing father, almost to himself.

On the other hand, Narasaiah is fiercely proud of his son Ravana. He
wears a blood red woollen scarf every day of the year. In his late
70s, Narasaiah sits in front of the martyr memorial in Subhashnagar,
Hyderabad. Ravana's (alias Nanni alias Sudakar) name is engraved on
it, against 2001. "For 12 years, I didn't even know where he was. I
met him once, five years after he left. They gave me 30 minutes to
talk to him." Narasaiah smiles. "The next I hear is that there is an
unidentified corpse, unclaimed for three days. Even today, whenever
there is a Naxalite related incident in the city, I am taken into
custody."

"But I have no regrets. We are from the Madiga caste. We had to sit
apart, could not wear chappals, were not paid for our labour and given
food according to the whims of the landlords. The party liberated us."

The real victims

According to Narasaiah, it is the wives who are punished. Seshaiah,
president of APCLC, agrees. "They are sexually harassed, children's
education is stopped and they are kicked out of their inlaws house."
Mastan Rao, a member of the central committee of the party, was
tortured for hours before he was shot, according to the party's press
releases.

"What good did it do?" asks his wife, crying. "I washed and ironed
clothes to bring up my children." When state committee member
Venkataswamy Chintala alias Suryam left, his wife had to rely on sheer
grit - there was a house loan and three children. "He wrote letters
often, and we met once in a while. Otherwise I brought them up running
a shop." For the party, it is a Catch 22 situation. They cannot fund
any schemes to help families or spouses, lest they too be labelled and
hunted as Maoists.

Madhvi Joshi, wife of slain AP state committee member Kondal Reddy, is
living her worst nightmare. But, "I have nothing against the party,"
she says. On March 11, Reddy left their house in Pune. He never came
back. "His phone was out of reach for hours. I did not know whom to
call." Kondal Reddy worked underground so the couple could keep no
contact with their families. She had no access to Telugu news channels
and did not see the pictures of his dead body or hear the news of his
death. Her brother, whom she called out of desperation, informed her.
"He was murdered in cold blood," she says.

Madhvi's mother accompanies her everywhere these days. "She is afraid
for me," says Madhvi. "I have to start life again. I knew he worked
for the party, though I did not know what he had to do. I did not
mind, he was such a kind, smiling man." But he is gone now and Madhvi
can't even dream of justice; he was an enemy of the people.

ashamenon@expressbuzz.com

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