A year after he disassociated from the Maoist party, poet Gaddar has joined the political roadshow in Telangana as a star campaigner for the Congress.
Hyderabad: For close to 40 years, Gummadi Vittal Rao, the 69-year-old former Naxal sympathiser better known as the Telugu revolutionary poet Gaddar, had shunned the ballot.
These days, Gaddar has not only embraced the democratic process but quite literally some of his old ‘foes’.
At a rally in Telangana’s Khammam on 28 November, the poet stepped onto the stage to warmly hug Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is part of the Prajakutami (earlier Mahakutami) assembled by the Congress, for whom Gaddar is one of the star campaigners in Telangana. The state goes to polls on 7 December.
The two men have a bitter history. Gaddar had been a vocal critic of Naidu’s anti-Naxal efforts, while the poet himself had survived an assassination attempt at Hyderabad in 1997 when Naidu’s TDP was in power in then undivided Andhra Pradesh.
More than Naidu, however, the poet expresses admiration for Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Gaddar says Gandhi has sincerely said that he would go the distance in bringing peace to Maoist-affected regions in the country.
“He (Rahul) became emotional saying he is ready to give up his life for the country,” Gaddar says. “I believe that the ruler of this country has to have peace talks with the revolutionary movement.”
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From bullet to ballot
Gaddar, who went underground in the 1980s, was part of the Jana Natya Mandali, a travelling theatre group that he founded and which later became the cultural wing of the CPI(ML) People’s War, which later merged with the CPI(Maoist).
His performances had always pulled huge crowds, drawn in by an endearing voice and simple lyrics. Gaddar remained active in the Naxal movement until 2010. He officially disassociated with the Maoist party in 2017 and declared himself an Ambedkarite.
He also announced that he would no longer shun the political process.
His new avatar, he hopes, will influence the Maoists to review their strategy. “Sirf gun hi nahi, kabhi vote bhi uthao (Don’t just resort to guns, use the ballot too),” he says is his advice to his former comrades.
“My feeling is that the struggle needs a new strategy. I am not saying that we should stop the war but we are cornered and need a new strategy,” Gaddar says, explaining that his stand is neither a call for full disarmament nor one to join the mainstream.
It is difficult to classify Gaddar in his current dispensation. Clad in a khadi, a shawl and a lathi to go with his pearl white beard and hair, he lives in the biggest house of a lane in Bhoodevi Colony, a suburban locality in Hyderabad.
His lathi now has a blue piece of ribbon in addition to the red cloth. “I have adopted Maoist wisdom (red) and coupled it with the thoughts of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Jyotirao Phule (blue).”
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‘Wanted to save Constitution’
His entry into mainstream politics, Gaddar says, was because he felt a need to step in and “save our Constitution”.
“It is madness that is taking place in this country in the name of desh bhakti,” he says, adding that the Congress is a better choice in a democracy ruled by “fundamentalists” — an apparent reference to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“The Congress is not the ‘liberal bourgeoisie’ that it is being projected as,” Gaddar says.
Toeing the Prajakutami line, Gaddar takes on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and its Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao or KCR.
Calling KCR a ‘fox’, Gaddar says that the CM has introduced a concept called ‘neo-feudalism’: “He (KCR) projects himself as a messiah for the oppressed but his policies make them impoverished. It is exploitation, all the same, the mode has changed.”
But so has Gaddar’s.
For someone who was in the maoist movement and who never had regular earnings under the Congress rule, can someone explain how his children are well settled in high paying jobs in the USA and how he has a huge house of his own? Isn’t journalism about asking these tough questions and looking at both sides of the story? Does the author think that she has done a good job here?