In Memory
The Revolutionary
Spirit of Nagireddy Should be our Ideal –
Viswam.
{This article published in the 'Class Struggle' , monthly Organ of CPI(ML)}
I met Comrade
Tarimela Nagireddy for the first time at Eluru in the 1966 Youth
Federation
conference. On that
occasion, he specially attended the core committee meeting of
students and
youth. In that
meeting he spoke at length about imperialism, on the desperate
condition of the rural
poor and the
oppression on them, on the impact of the crisis, on the problems of
the students and how to organize student movement etc.
On another occasion
I met him in Palacole plenum. There Comrade Basavapunnaiah explained
the Central Committee documents and Comrades Chandra Pulla Reddy,
Kolla Venkaiah presented their own documents. At the end Nagireddy
proposed a resolution rejecting the document of the Central
Committee. This resolution was adopted with thumping majority. The
CPM leadership though lost majority in the State Committee, acquired
majority by co-opting some more and removed Nagireddy, D.V. etc. from
the party. But by releasing ‘A Letter to Members of the Party’
Comrades D.V, Nagi, Venkayya, and Pullareddy announced their revolt
against the party. In a state level cadre meeting they formed a
committee in the name of Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of
Communist Revolutionaries. Nagireddy was the convener of that
committee.
Those four comrades
by preparing two documents viz. ‘Lay the Foundations for the
Struggle Oriented Movement’, and ‘Immediate Programme’ took
steps to organize revolutionary
movement and
revolutionary party.
In the 1969 state
plenum at Atlapragada (Krishna dt.), they discussed along with the
above two documents a note on Srikakulam Girijan movement and the
report of activities. By the time of this plenum Kolla Venkaiah
changed his stand and joined in the Srikakulam committee feeling that
his primary task was to support the movement in Srikakulam.
The resolution on
separate Telangana agitation proposed by Nagireddy in that plenum had
a
class perspective.
The essence of the resolution was that the ruling classes as a result
of contradictions among them were pushing such agitations to the
fore, and people should not divert from the struggles on fundamental
issues. But as people and students were widely participating in it, a
word of expressing solidarity to the agitation was added at the end
of the resolution. By the addition of this small phrase the
significance of the discussion and its orientation was lost.
Any how, the
arguments supporting the Srikakulam movement and its deviated
activities were used to confuse the orientation of the documents.
While some quoted Peking radio mentioning the name of Srikakulam some
others challenged that the name of Warangal also would be mentioned
soon.
It was decided that
the party should go to the underground immediately and all the
members of the district committee should lead a life of underground.
The plenum documents were adopted, in the midst of all these
confusions in the plenum. Some were in favour of doing activities in
the line of
documents and some
others to continue the work according to their own agenda in a
mechanical way.
As the ‘Immediate
Programme’ gave a call to prepare the peasants for armed struggle
by overestimating the situation and as it was a wrong call, efforts
were made to support all other diversionary trends.
I was working at
that time for the last four months in the East Godavari district. The
report of the
movement where I was
working was before the plenum. Whether Nagireddy observed it or not
he
took all
precautionary measures to protect the movement. Estimating that the
people’s movement will reach a higher stage, a comrade from
Rayalaseema was deputed to give us training. After the plenum,
Comrade D.V. attended the meeting of agency cadre. The movement was
taking a concrete
shape after the
state plenum. It seems that Comrade DV did not believe in the
leadership of the district committee at that level and so he took me
aside and advised me to beat the landlords black and blue if it was
necessary. Why I am remembering all these because the steps and
advice given by both the leaders Nagi and DV were concerned with the
application of Marxism in practice and enhancing potentialities of
people for struggle step by step. But some members in the Andhra
Committee itself started irresponsible criticism. Some members
created disturbance by discussing on secondary things, leaving aside
the fundamental things. Nagireddy understood all these things
comprehensively and tried to act accordingly. Ultimately the policy
of the formulators of mass line and of armed resistance became one
and the same. There are reviews which confirm this.
Keeping in view all
the efforts made by others to question his sincerity and personality,
Comrade
Nagireddy shouldered
a number of responsibilities as a responsible leader. He did not sit
in his house idle. On one side challenging the attacks and vicious
propaganda of the rulers, and on the other side protecting,
explaining, owning and practising the revolutionary mass line, all
these were to be done simultaneously by Comrade Nagireddy and other
comrades. Especially Comrade Nagireddy faced all the challenges from
all sides most courageously. He discussed with the activists of
Jayaprakash movement and argued that without including the land issue
their movement would not be useful. They did not agree with him. Then
he declared that we could not be a part and parcel of their movement
but would remain as sympathizers.
Hundreds of Girijans
of Srikakulam were in prison. Their families were in concentration
camps under the surveillance of the police without any kind of
freedom. Nagireddy went to the agency and
faced that situation
militantly. The tour of Comrade Nagireddy and his powerful speeches
provided
relatively a
breathing space to the Girijans. At that time he shouldered several
responsibilities like finding lawyers for defence, campaigning for
the finances for the defence, building agitations for civil and
democratic rights, touring for the unity of revolutionaries, giving
guidance to district level
committees,
struggling for the rectification of alien trends in cultural and
teacher fronts, publication of Janasakthi magazine, reorganization of
the movement in Girijan areas etc. He played a role
in making decision
in the party and was very eager and anxious about the implementation.
I was a direct witness to observe him in this regard from 1972 to
1976 until he became a martyr. He rejected strongly the proposals of
attacks for getting finance to the party and on the other hand he
himself started the method of depending on the people and taught it
to others. Immediately after the
decision on
reorganization of the movement he sent the best comrade working under
his
responsibility to
East Godavari in 1975. By sending that comrade Ramireddy, in those
days from
Anantapur, he was
devoid of so many conveniences. He gave more importance to the
movement
in the agency rather
than organisation of the party in Rayalaseema. This is a significant
thing to be noted in the activities of Nagireddy who gave first
priority to the building of the movement. In
my experience I
found that some leaders in the name of the movement took the cadre
for their
convenience only. I
am not afraid of commenting on those leaders who lacked sincerity and
commitment,
exploited the toil of Comrade Nagireddy and deprived him of his
conveniences. But
Nagireddy was not
innocent; he was smart enough to keep in mind all these things. He
undertook both the key tasks and ordinary tasks. Comrade Stalin once
mentioned that some organizers select important tasks and they refuse
to take up small tasks. In addition to practising the advice of
Comrade Stalin, he struggled a lot to declassify from the background
of his birth, its comfortable life and its habits.
IN THE
MUSHEERABAD JAIL OF SECUNDERABAD
The ‘Immediate
Programme’ document of Atlaprgada conference, April 1969 was taken
as a basis for the conspiracy case by the government. After that
Nagireddy owned it as his political and moral responsibility. All the
activities taken up according to that document also were owned by
him.
At the same time he
did not criticize or expose before the enemy the left adventurous,
opportunist politics and practice with which he differed. He treated
all these issues as internal issues of the revolutionaries. Some
denigrated this dignified attitude of Nagireddy.
Nagireddy gave no
importance to this type of propaganda. On the other hand he used to
argue in a dignified manner that they got this chance of criticizing
him as proper action was not taken at proper time and they will
understand the facts in due course. He took this attitude as he
aspired for the unity of all revolutionaries.
In the prison
Comrade Nagireddy was in the position of a Mayor. He should look
after the
problems of all
Comrades. He should maintain discipline. He should keenly observe
whether
anybody is yielding
to the enemy. He should observe whether all of them are seriously
studying without wasting time. He should also see whether they were
involved in quarrels. He should only deal with the jail authorities.
Soon after I came to
that jail, I found that the undisciplined and those who helped the
enemy were
sent to another
block. As there were petty quarrels in the big block, Comrade
Nagireddy gave his
single room to
Comrade DV and shifted his camp in to the middle of those who were
frequently involved in petty quarrels.
Nagireddy used to
watering the flower plants and green vegetables every day. He used to
study from 6 pm to 9.30 or 10 in the night and used to join with the
gambling group and play cards for
half an hour. After
that again he used to be absorbed in his studies until 2or 3 in the
early morning. He used to rise at 7 in the morning, take coffee and
looked after the plants, washed his clothes and took his bath. Though
the jail authorities provided a washer man he did not use that
facility. He used to press his clothes by pressing with hands and
placing them under the pillow and feel happy they were pressed well.
He used to spend some time with children of Christopher, the sub
jailer. The wife of
Christopher used to complain against her husband and got him
reprimanded by
Nagireddy. Mande
Pitchaiah was beside his cot, Somachari was just opposite to him and I
used to stay beside Somachari. Nagireddy used to give information
that he gathered and encouraged
Pitchaiah to write.
Mande Pitchaiah wrote a book called ‘Industries in India’ in
Telugu.
Nagireddy used to
give simple English novels and encouraged Somachari to read them
which he read with difficulty and with interest. TN and DV both used
to discuss with low tone every day in the morning for half an hour at
the time of the preparation of the court statement. They used to
exchange the paper cuttings and reference books and engaged in their
writing activity.
Both of them were
affectionate towards me. Almost all the comrades in the jail were
like that towards me. Though the comrades in the jail were divided in
to two groups because of political differences between the jail
committee and the committee outside the jail, they lived in the same
commune. The responsibility of the commune, helping some families,
defence in the court etc. fell completely on Nagireddy.
I fell seriously ill
while I was in Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam jails. Then I was given
special
treatment to recoup
from it. Devulapalli Venkateswara rao, gave me a box of groundnut
lumps
with jiggery and
advised me to eat one every day and not to offer them to others. To
improve my strength Jonna Kotaiah, and Nekkalapudi Ramarao arranged
omelet with two eggs for me by talking with the in charge of the
kitchen store. Among those who went on fast in solidarity with the
comrades fasting in Visakhapatnam jail condemning repression the
pulse of Comrade Nagireddy and myself became weak and the doctors
said it was a dangerous sign. In the meantime the intervention of
Vavilala and others from outside an accord was made in regard to the
issues
related to
Visakhapatnam jail. So we too stopped our fasting. In order to
recoup, additional milk and eggs were granted. A small stove was
permitted to Nagireddy. At the time of preparation of the statement
he used to prepare and drink coffee for every half an hour and its
result is ‘India Mortgaged.’ He used to prepare pudding for both
of us in the night. Whatever may be the
differences, on the
whole a comradely atmosphere prevailed in the jail. During the jail
life I
observed in
Nagireddy the quality of restraint and the broad mindedness of making
friendship
even with others who
hate him and broad mindedness of looking after their inconveniences
and showing kindness to them. I got an opportunity to write about me
also on this occasion of recording my memories of Nagireddy. I think
this is excusable.
COURT AND TRIAL
OF THE CASE.
Leaving those who
were released in the magistrate court, a session’s judge court was
formed and the trial was started. Nagireddy and DV argued by
themselves. On behalf of others advocates SVL
Narasimham , Raavi
Subbarao , Prathipati Venkateswarlu argued. At the time of the
reading of the
statement in the
court Chaganti Shankarrao was removed from our defence. Mandala
Narayana Swamy, Somachari and some others opposed the defence of SVL
and rejected his defence. They announced Prathipati Venkateswarlu as
their defence lawyer. This had created problems among the
revolutionaries. Among those who were sent to another block in the
jail , there were some who turned into approvers by giving an
undertaking to the government, along with those who had
developed blind
opposition and hatred towards our political policy. Kollipara
Panduranga Rao was my friend. He left the job of a lecturer and came
to work in the party. He took the responsibility of Manthani area. At
the time of working there, he became psychologically extremely
emotional. He developed hatred and rivalry towards Chandra Pulla
Reddy. He was arrested. The police and our political rivals utilized
well his mental state in their favour. They diverted the grudge on
Pulla
Reddy towards
Nagireddy. Then we came to know that those who sent all these
developments in an
exaggerated form to
‘Telugu Velugu’ magazine were among us.Though the
leadership identified them their names were not revealed to us.
In
June or July of 1970 during the trial of Hyderabad conspiracy case in
the Magistrate Court, Comrade Nagireddy declared without any
ambiguity that ‘ it is impossible to implement land reforms in a
democratic manner without armed
struggles,’ and ‘ it is clear deception to say that feudalism
will disappear without giving a direct call
to revolutionary practice.’ His speech which ran for two hours
uninterrupted was concluded with the
statement that it is inevitable to overthrow the ruling classes
through class struggle and armed revolt of people.
Comrades Nagi Reddy
and Devulapalli decided to stand by the decisions of the party
however
rigorous the
punishment might be. They took Dimitrov in the Reichstag cases
internationally and nationally the communists and revolutionaries of
Meerut and Kanpur conspiracy cases as their ideal.
The cases on us are
of very serious nature. The prosecution was trying to prove that we
had
conspired to
overthrow the state and committed several crimes to achieve it. We
had to prove that
we did not conspire
at all. Our argument was that communists never hide their ideals and
goals,
they put forward all
of them before the people and they themselves will achieve the state
power. But the government’s argument was that it was a crime to
spread awareness among the people to achieve that goal and to achieve
rights by themselves. On the other hand our argument was that it was
against the rules of nature to prescribe the path to get state power.
The government argued that getting elected democratically means
winning in the elections. Our argument was that people would
get state power in
whatever possible way ‘. Our ‘Immediate Programme’ was to
spread awareness among the people for that. So Nagireddy decided to
argue that it was not a conspiracy. It was not at all a crime to
educate the people to change this system as the policies of the
government are at the worst stage. Our duty and great task was to
tell the people to achieve what they want in spite
of requesting the
government repeatedly. While our advocates cross examined witnesses
against
us from legal angle,
Nagireddy crossed them from social and political angle. When Comrade
DV
was clarifying the
land issue while studying the statement, the judge enthusiastically
questioned him
‘can you
distribute if power is given.’ DV at once replied ‘Centralization
of the land will be
broken if some
weapons of the government are given to the people.’ The way in
which Comrades TN and DV argued their case was exemplary to all
communists who would like to do it.
The prosecution
brought about 50 witnesses in support of the 70 accused cases in East
Godavari
district foisted on
hundreds of people and thus tried that we conspired against the
state. All these cases were personally against me and Santhiraju. But
the prosecution planned to argue that our political line is behind
all these cases. By taking me into the room of DV this point was
explained to
both of us by
Nagireddy. Comrades told carefully ‘we have to own all these things
as this is the practical side of our political line. If we own it we
may be sentenced severely but it is necessary to own it.’ Accordingly while
giving statement in the court I owned it and explained that we have
not
committed any crime
and how the landlords had grabbed the lands of the people and their
atrocities. I also explained that it was people who had taken the
programme of getting back their lands from the landlords. Thus our
leaders exhibited political and organizational talents in
strengthening the
organizers and
facing the plots of the enemy politically. We are following their
tradition. We have
not yet withdrawn
from it. I am declaring this taking support from the quotation of
Comrade Lenin in ‘The Blue Note book’ ‘A communist in his last
moments should review his life and be satisfied for living as a
communist. One can participate in many struggles and make much
sacrifice in the course of his or her life, but towards the end of
life one may degenerate. A communist should be satisfied by examining
himself or herself whether he or she lived as a communist till the
last moment of life.’ This is the essence of Lenin’s quotation.
(At present I could not produce the actual quotation of Lenin).
Right from his
release from the jail up to the declaration of emergency Comrade TN
worked day in and day out for the democratic rights, legal defence
for revolutionaries and for the reorganization of the movement that
was fizzled out by the oppression of the enemy. He spent all his time
in training the revolutionary activists and in building the
organizations of peasants, workers, youth, literary and cultural
fronts. In the activists meetings he prophesied the danger of
declaration of emergency several months before it was declared. He
educated the cadre how to mobilize the people even in the emergency
and advised them to remove the illusions of the people by demanding
the implementation of the pseudo reforms of the ruling classes. He
advised them to expose the ruling classes by publishing pamphlets on
each and every issue that is related to the people. He advised them
to be skilful in distributing the pamphlets even in severe
repression, without the knowledge of the enemy. His ceaseless efforts
and work affected his health.
Nagireddy left
everything for the sake of the movement. The support given to him by
her wife
was exemplary. She
followed him. She protected his valuable literature. I was surprised
to see all
the paper cuttings
of 1960 decade pasted in the illustrated weeklies were kept in her
safe custody and she handed over them to him at the time of
preparation of the court statement. Those paper cuttings were related
to the news about oppression on the people of Srikakulam, Nalgonda,
Warangal, Khammam, and Rayalaseema districts, comments by
journalists, comments of the government, and on so many issues. The
compilation of all these paper cuttings as files was the reason for
my surprise. TN gave some necessary material from them to Comrade
Ramalingachari to remember the past.
After knowing that
TN resorted to smoke beedies instead of cigarettes, his wife,
relatives and
friends used to send
him odourless cigarettes but he continued to smoke beedies. Only when
Lakshmikanthamma came
for an interview then only he used to keep that cigarette pack in his
hand with a broad laugh in order to deceive her.
After his martyrdom
also his wife Lakshmikanthamma did not leave the pious duty of
protecting
TN’s literature.
She felt that those treasure of books were to be used by future
generations and handed over them by taking all precautions. She
created a trust by depositing thousands of rupees. Though TNM Trust
was started with great ideals and goals it faced many ups and downs.
In spite of that the Trust is now functioning well. She would have
felt extremely happy to see this if she were alive today. As I felt
it is necessary to explain her role I wrote all these details.
DURING EMERGENCY
Comrade TN used to
attend AP committee meetings as it’s In charge. He prepared
extensive
notes proving how 20
point programme was bogus and asked a young comrade to frame it as an
essay. That comrade
prepared it as a wonderful essay. Along with the booklet on the
attitude of
revolutionaries
towards reforms, he got printed the essay of Lenin on the era of
reforms. During one year in emergency when he was alive I was able to
understand closely, his abilities of deep political analysis, a clear
understanding of the theory, organizational orientation according to
the situation and his quality of restraint. Previously I understood
him as a person with broad mind and gentle behaviour; I also saw his
depth and harshness during this one year. I came to understand that
he was not only harsh towards the enemy but he was harsh to himself
also. Those who see his plainness and
agitational attitude
have to correct their view about him. Comrade TN was rigorous towards
himself,towards his family, towards sincere comrades. Nagireddy was a
hard man. Why this hardness? It is for revolution. Do not hate
him......do
not love
him......implement him. ........ This is my request.
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