Rev Left Radio - The Life of Varavara Rao: Indian Poet, Revolutionary, and Political Prisoner

Episode Date: September 25, 2020

Venugopal Nellutla, the nephew of Indian poet and revolutionary VV Rao, joins Breht to discuss the life, poetry, and politics of his uncle, comrade, and friend.  Contact Venugopal for more information and resources at: [e-mail] Learn more about VV Rao: https://www.facebook.com/nvenugopal.rao Please Support Rev Left Radio HERE Outro Music: 'Omens and Totems' by R.A.P. Ferreira LEARN MORE ABOUT REV LEFT RADIO: www.revolutionaryleftradio.com

Hello everybody and welcome back to Revolutionary Left Radio. On today's episode, we have the nephew of Varivara Rao, a Indian poet, revolutionary, and a political prisoner. His nephew, Venu Gupal, is on the episode today to talk about his uncle, his uncle's life, the impact his uncle's poetry and political activism has had on Indian culture and the current state. of his uncle, which is being imprisoned in India as a political prisoner. There's no other way to put it. So this is a fascinating episode on a fascinating figure. In a lot of ways, this is a continuation of an earlier episode we did on the Naxalites. So if you want to have a broader cultural and historical understanding of the Naxalite movement and of Indian history,

I would urge people to check that out and then come back to this episode, perhaps, if you don't know anything about the Naxilites. But even if you have some working understanding of the situation in India and Indian politics, you'll get so much out of this conversation, even outside of a full-fledged understanding of the next light movement. So I'll link to the sources that he mentions in the show notes so people can follow up. And even if it's just sending a letter to the family showing solidarity, it can mean a lot to see people from the U.S. take an active interest in participation in trying to get Var-Var-Var out.

out of prison. I believe he's in his early 80s. He's obviously not doing well. He's recently been diagnosed with COVID. And, you know, to put any pressure on the Indian government to get him out and allow him to be back with his family is good work and important work. So without further ado, let's get into this episode with the nephew of Arvara Rao, Venugupal, and talk about this amazing and important Indian revolutionary. Enjoy. Hello, viewers. This is N. Venu Gopal, a poet, literary critic and journalist from Telugu, a language of South India. Today I am going to talk about Varavarov, a Marxist revolutionary poet for the last 60 years, who has been supporting all people's movements in India. and particularly the movements of Marxist Lenis, known as Naxalites and Maoists in India.

He has been writing poetry and literary criticism and he has been a public speaker for the last 50 years. Now, for the last two years, without any trial, without any charges, he has been imprisoned in Maharashtra jails, in Pune jail for security. 16 months and then in Mumbai jail for the last six months. And because of his incarceration, actually this is not his first incarceration, we will know the details about the other incarcerations. On the whole, in the last 50 years, he spent about 10 years in jails and acquitted in almost all the cases, never found guilty. the state has been targeting him for his revolutionary activities and poetry and public speaking.

For the last two years, he has been in jail, and there is a widespread protest across the globe for his release. In this context, I am going to speak about his personality, his poetry, and the cause he cherished with the American listeners. Wonderful. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. I really think, you know, VV is an important figure globally, and I'm excited to introduce a Western audience to him and his impact on Indian politics and culture. So, you know, just to start off for a largely Western audience who may not be familiar at all with VV Rao, can you please tell us sort of a little bit more about who he is and particularly his significance to Indian culture? Varver Rao, he is popularly known as VIV with his initials. VIV has been a name that cannot be separated from the revolutionary movement, the Marxist-Leninist movement, ever since that emerged in late 1960s in India. Though that began in one small village in West Bengal called Naxalbury, that spread like wildfire all across the country.

You might be aware that India is a very large country with hundreds of languages, officially recognized 25 languages, and Telugu is one of those officially recognized, constitutionally recognized languages spoken by about 100 million people in southern part of India. In this part of India, he started writing poetry at the age of 17 in 1957.

He was born in 1940. So from 57 onwards, he started writing poetry and the initial poetry was vague humanism and trust in Nehruvian model of socialist development. But within no time, he came. out of those Nehruite illusions. And by that time, there was cultural revolution in China and all across the globe like civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam war movement and black movement in the U.S., students' revolts in France, Mexico and elsewhere, and national liberation movements in Southeast Asia.

In that milieu, in India also, poets and thinkers began to think a new, a fresh. And Vivi was part of that generation, angry 60s generation. From that angry 60s by 69, he started a small group of poets called rebel poets who supported openly the armed struggle of indigenous people in Srikakulam, a district, a remote district in Andhra Pradesh. From there, from rebel poets, from Tirgabadoo poets, it's called, in Telugu, rebellion is Tirgabadoo. He was recognized as one of the Tirgabudu poets. and from there he was one of the founders of Revolutionary Writers Association formed in 1970, July. From then till now, in the last 50 years, this revolutionary writers association has been steadfastly supporting all people's movements, writing in favor of the people's movements.

and upholding the cause of people's movements and people's struggles, in particular the struggles in Nuxelbury life. So that way, Varver Rao is a name to be reconned with. He has been writing poetry for the last 60 years. And out of that 60 years, 50 years, he wrote poetry for people. He wrote poetry for revolution. He brought poetry for struggles. That way, he is an indispensable, indivisible name in Indian people's struggles and people's movements. Can you talk about your personal relationship to Varva Rao and what kind of sort of human being he is just sort of personally?

He is my maternal uncle and my mother and he were a large family. There were ten siblings. and he was lost of them. So he was about 20 years elder to me and for the first five, six years, I might have seen him as an uncle, nothing more. But after that, maybe by my seventh, eighth year,

he became a public speaker and he became a poet of people. So since then, I have been under his umbrella. his ideas, his admonitions, his encouragement. Actually, I wrote recently a piece in Indian Cultural Forum website. There I said, without him, I would not have been me. I would not have been there. That is my personal relationship with him.

And what kind of a person is he? He is so lovable. he is so selfless he has given his all to the cause of people he suffered various kinds of persecutions and prosecutions from the state

a sword was hanging on his head for the last 50 years but then he never lost his love for people his affection to people He is a friendly person, he is a public speaker and with one person sitting in front of him or with he addressed a meeting of 12 million people. That was one of the largest meetings on the Pradesh has seen and there he spoke about revolution.

Even with one person he would speak with the same fervor and same passion. So he basically was a passionate man. He basically was a communicator. Beautiful. Now, before we get into politics, and you talked about Vivi's poetry a little bit, but maybe we can dive a little deeper and talk about his poetry more, namely the sort of themes that he explored, the effect on Indian culture that his poetry alone has had,

and then even maybe you can mention what poems of his that you personally like the most or are attracted to. Oh, in one way, this is a difficult question, because he has written about 500 poems in the last 60 years. He, we published, actually I published, his collected poems of 60 years in two volumes running into thousand pages. He has written about 500 and out of those 500 poems, maybe 150 poems he wrote in jails. and these two volumes, if you go through them from 57 to 2018, that gives a social, a comprehensive social history of Telugu land and India and world. He responded to each and every worthy social and political event in this land, in this part of the country, in the whole world.

He wrote about Vietnam. He wrote about Kennedy's death. He wrote about Jawhalal Nehru. He wrote about Marilyn Monroe. He wrote about Dandakaranya. He wrote about class enemy annihilation. He wrote about arm struggle. He wrote about Charamajundar.

Name anything. He is as versatile as Pablo Neruda, who wrote on everything. For him, nothing is unpoetic. He could turn anything into poetry. In 1957, his first published poem, the poem that gave him recognition was a poem when the erstwhile Soviet Union

sent a dog, first animal, into the space. Laika, that was in 1957. In Sputnik, they sent Laika into the space. That news appeared in newspapers. At that time, he was only 17-year-old boy, youngster. He wrote a poem called Socialist to Chandrudo, that is, socialist moon. This was in 1965. In that poem, he said, we will put our foot on moon soon.

this was in 65, four years before man landed on moon, he wrote that. And in 1962, Merlin Monroe committed suicide and there was a discussion at that time. As a college student, he was a film buff. Merlin Monroe was his favorite actor. And students were discussing about Marilyn Monroe's suicide and somebody said, oh, you want to write poem on her. Then he said, why not? If in India, that way you asked about how Indian culture is related to him. In Indian culture, there are poems on Lord Ram's shoe.

Lord Ram touched a stone and that stone became a woman. There are poems. Vee questioned that person in a place where shoe can become a poetic theme. Stone can become a poetic theme. Why not a human being like Marilyn Monroe? And he wrote a poem on Marilyn Monroe. From then, a poet of sentimentality, a poet of vague progressivism, he became a revolutionary point.

He openly supported each and every political struggle of people. He expressed the demands of people in poetry. As recent as 2014, 2016, he wrote poems on Janathana Sarkar, that is a parallel government run by Marxists in deep forests of Danda Karania. In this broad spectrum, from a poem on a film actress to a poem on alternative people's governance, this is a broad spectrum and you name, any theme, there is a Vivi's poem. Beautiful. So moving on to politics, how did VV get into politics initially? And what other contributions outside of his poetry did he make to people's movements within India?

From the beginning, I think if I trace back his evolution, he has been, apart from poet, he has been an institution builder. He has been an organizer in 1958 when he was first year degree student, he became convener of a small literary group that meets every week. This was in 1958. And then I told you, I referred that he led a group of people called rebel poets. And then he was one of the founders of this revolutionary writers association. Revolutionary Writers' Association, when it was formed, openly said, we support all people's struggles, including armed struggles. We support self-determination, right to self-determination of nationalities, including right to secede in India, and particularly in India. This is a major question because India is a multinational country.

It's not one nation. It's not a nation state. There are hundreds of languages and dozens of nationalities. All of them were brought together by colonialism during British colonial rule and post-colonial rule, post-1947, the rulers continued this prison house of nationalities. In that context, revolutionary writers openly. supported the right to self-determination and right to secede also. So, revolutionary writers association from the beginning was overtly political organization. In their manifesto itself, they said, we believe in Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zittun thought.

We support armed struggles. So that way, wherever Rao was one of the founders of this organization. wherever Rao was secretary of this organization for some time, wherever Ra was editor of the monthly organ of this organization for some time. And he was one of the important public speakers representing this organization. Though this organization began as a literary group, and particularly when the Nuxelbury line, the Nuxelbury movement, was in a setback stage.

By 1971, 72, it was crushed. Hundreds of people were killed. And in the name of fake encounters. And Charamajandar also, Charamajundar, the founder of this movement, the architect of this Naxalbury line, died in police custody in 1972, July. So when the Revolutionary Writers' Organization was formed,

By that time, Naxalbury politics and Naxalbury movement was on the way. It is revolutionary writers who kept the flame alive. There, Barrault's role was there. As a public speaker, in the last 50 years, he might have addressed thousands of meetings. He went into nook and corner of not only on the Pradesh, but everywhere in India. There is not a single state that he gave a public lecture on revolutionary politics. And he has been translated, his poetry has been translated into at least seven Indian languages. At least four Indian languages have published his poetry.

So that way his contribution as a poet and as a public speaker is immense. Not only that, in Andhra Pradesh, post-revolutionary Riders Association, there are at least seven or eight different organizations, mass organizations, Tokshay, radical students' union, radical youth league, agricultural peasants and agricultural laborers association, coal miners association, India, China, Friendship Association, Civil Liberties Committee, all this kind of organization organizations, wherever Ra was behind, wherever Ra was a mentor, wherever Ra was a public speaker in their meetings.

Not only this, by 1983, all this was in 1970s. By 1983, this spread all over India. By that time, Naxalite Party also spread, and parallel to this Naxalate Party, writers organizations spread, students' organizations spread, youth organizations spread, and all India League for Revolutionary Culture. That is an organization of writers and artists all over the country. It is a federation of revolutionary literary associations of all the languages and all the states that was formed in 1983.

wherever Roe was secretary for some time and he was one of the founders. And later, to coordinate various people's struggles, All India People's Resistance Forum was formed and wherever Ra was part of it, wherever Ra was mentor of that organization. As recently as 2012, Revolutionary Democratic Front, a united front organization, of different streams of people's struggles was formed

and wherever was president of that organization. That way he is an icon. He has become an icon of the outspoken spokesperson of Indian revolution, Indian people's struggles. I see. Well, somebody like that who is such an effective revolutionary organizer always inevitably becomes the target of reaction. Can you discuss the backlash to Vivi's politics and his political activity from the state as well as from non-state reactionaries and sort of what consequences he's faced due to this reaction throughout his life?

Naturally, he earned the wrath of the powers that be from the beginning. When this revolutionary writers association was formed, immediately, the establishment writers and the conservative traditionalist writers, called them literary knuxels. Today they are calling them urban nuxels or urban Maoists. In 1970, the conformist pro-establishment writers called him literary knuxelite. And they asked the government to look after, to see the danger from this literary knuxlites.

By 1970 itself, 1970 October, they held their first conference and published their first poetry anthology that was banned within a month by November 1970. So banning of books, arrest of writers, implicating them in cases, foisting conspiracy cases against them, all kinds of repression and killing them along with revolutionaries has been the strategy of the state. and creating vigilante forces, non-state actors in quote-unquote non-state actors to kill and harass revolutionary writers for the last 50 years. This has been the history, particularly coming to wherever row. He was arrested for the first time in 1973, three years of formation of this Revolutional Riders Association. At that time, there used to be a law, a draconian law, called Maintenance of Internal Security Act, called MISA. He was arrested under Mesa.

But one of the courts struck down the order saying that writers cannot be arrested for their writings alone. But that judge has given a hint to the state, saying that they cannot be writers cannot be arrested for their writings alone and he added a writer the judge added a writer saying that unless there is an imminent danger police and state took a clue from that and associated a poem with an imminent danger associated a poem with an axelite's action associated a poem, a public speech, with an annihilation of class enemy. So, by 1974, 73 he was arrested, October, he was arrested, November he was released because court struck down, and by 74 May,

he, along with five other writers from Revolutionary Writers Association, and 46 Naxalites and Naxalite leaders, activists and leaders, were implicated in a large case called Sikindrabha Conspiracy case. This conspiracy case began in 1974 and went for 14 years. The trial went on for 14 years in 1988. Finally, it was struck down and all the writers were let loose, found not guilty, acquitted. all kinds of crimes were associated with their poems and writings and public speeches they would say whatever row came to so-and-so town and gave a public speech

and after two weeks there was a bank robbery by Naxalides so his speech is directly related to that so there was an imminent danger by his writings So this was the case. For this case, he was there for one year in jail. Then he got a bail, he came out, and within a month, Indira Gandhi, at that time, she was the prime minister. She announced, she proclaimed emergency in the country. Under emergency, constitutionally, all fundamental rights, right to speech, right to assemble, right to move, or curtailed, suspended.

This revolutionary writers association at that time, its strength was about 70, 35 writers were arrested and kept behind bars. For 21 months, they were in jail. And later also post-78, post-emergency, he was implicated in many cases and on the whole from 1973 to 2018, 45 years. he was implicated in 25 cases, 25 cases of all kinds of crimes, but the law courts themselves, the judiciary itself, has released him finding. So, that means prosecution could not prove a single charge in a single case, he was finally released. And parallel to this, there were several attempts on his life by police themselves and the vigilante forces or the mafia generated by, sponsored by state.

At least three or four times his close associates were killed and police openly gave slogans and took rallies. giving slogans that we will kill Varva Rao. He got several threatening calls, but he defied death. He always, he would say in 1985, one of his close associates, a pediatrician, a doctor by profession who was working with Civil Liberti's association was killed. And at that time, police came to kill Varver Rao. They could not find Varver Rao, and they killed. this doctor. Since then, this was in

1985. Whatever Rau says all the subsequent life is only a bonus that day I would have been killed. So I use all my bonus life for people only. So all this, he braved this persecution and prosecution and in 2018 this new case was concocted, cooked up, fabricated, and again he was sent to jail after 25 acquittals.

His entire life, he's faced extreme reaction to his political activity and to this day is still in prison, which we'll get to in a little bit. You've talked about how Rao's poetry was often linked to naxalite activity and how even to this day VV is called an urban Maoist or an urban Naxalai. which we've discussed in our previous episodes on the Naxilites for those that are interested. I was hoping that you could talk just a little bit more about how exactly involved with the Naxilite movement Rau is and sort of what role he's played within it. Is it just sort of an auxiliary role where he's where he's helping boosted it from the outside or has he actually traveled into the forests and met with Naxalites? I'm just wondering about that whole connection.

For this, we have to go a little bit into history of the communist movement in India. The communist movement, which began India in 1920s, till 1946, it never thought of capturing, seizing state power, and it never thought about the strategy of Indian Revolution. All that time, they were thinking about the Russian model of revolution, an insurrection, and they were trying to organize working class, which was not there, which was not much in 1930s, 1940s India. In 1946, for the first time, in this part of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Hyderabad state, at that time it was a princely state within British India.

People, peasants, began an armed struggle. And Communist Party had to support. this and lead this armed struggle. And at that time, leaders of Communist Party thought for a brief period that Indian revolution might not follow, might not take the Russian path, but it might take Chinese path with peasants in the forefront, led by working class leadership. but within five years that revolution was crushed by the state on one hand and leaders of the Communist Party themselves withdrew the struggle officially in 51. Since then, official Communist Party in India that was split in 1964 into two called CPI, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India, Marxist.

But both these parties were taking off. only parliamentary path. They were fighting elections and they were not even thinking about revolution and armed struggle and organizing people. They were only forming mass organizations

and these mass organizations were just mired in capitalism. There were no politics. Because of this, Naxalbury, when it broke out in 1967, Naxalbury leaders, particularly Charimbu Jundar,

theorized that mass organizations themselves are revisionism. If we are forming mass organizations, they will go into revisionist path, economists path, and they will not take a political struggle. So we should not form mass organizations. That way, there was no, in Naxelbury line, there was no chance, there was no scope for mass organizations. organizations, but Revolutionary Writers Association in Andhra Pradesh was an experiment in regenerating moss organizations with political perspective, not allowing them to become revisionist and to go into economism.

So there, Revolutionary Writers Association and Varavarov and Associates of Forever Rao were telling Naxalite parties, Naxalite movement that, see here, you can form mass organizations, you can run mass organizations revolutionarily, you can stop revolutionary organizations, prevent revolutionary organizations going into revisionism. And from there, I refer to so many mass organizations. So that way, wherever Rao was one of the key figures that gave a new thought to the communist movement, the Naxelite tradition. And whether he is technically a part of the underground organization or not, is not much relevant here. Because state is accusing that and I will not go into that. But whatever the Naxalite Party, the Underground Party, the Armed Struggle Party was doing, revolutionary writers were supporting in to-to, without any reservations, without any compromise. V.V. was always on the forefront in supporting that.

That way, he has an organic relationship with the Nuxelite movement. And because of that, that continued for 30, 40 years in 1997 when in Andhra Pradesh some good Samaritans, some retired civil servants, some professors, some academics and writers, they thought, why should this kind of violence killing activists and people in the name of Nuxelites? And why Nuxelites killing landlords and police? Why should this violence happen? Let there be a meaningful peace and let there be a discussion, a negotiation between Naxalites and the government. A kind of attempt was begun in late 90s. Because of that, in 2002, for the first time, Nuxilite party accepted the offer and named, V-V as its representative to talk to the government. Till that time, he was only a writer. He was only a poet supporting the revolution, supporting the Nuxilites.

But in 2002, for the first time, when Naxalites named him and another popular revolutionary singer Gaddard by name Gadd as two representatives to talk to the government on the modalities of the would-be negotiations. These were not actual negotiations. Actual negotiations with the party, between the party and the government may take later. But what kind of modalities to be fixed? What are the terms of reference?

To fix the terms of reference, wherever Ra was named. That was first his attempt to, he was recognized as a voice of, knoxalides. And even before that, whenever a fake encounter takes place, he was in the forefront to go to the actual place of the encounter where the dead body is shown, the body of the cadar is shown, he would take the dead body along with the family and he would conduct the funerals, he would speak at the funeral. That way he was showing his relationship with

the slain knuxlides. After 2002, that 2002 attempt did not fructify and it did not go ahead. But in 2004, there was an actual one week. Nuxleite parties left their arms in the forest and they came to Hyderabad, the state capital, and they were given shelter in state guesthouse, government's guesthouse for a week and for three days across the table two ministers from the government side and revolutionary party leaders from various areas sat it was like mexican

the talks between japatis and the government it went on and wherever row was one of the mediators at the stocks. And apart from this, he moved the courts of law several times on the violations of rights of Nuxilites, violations of rights of imprisoned Nuxilites, extrajudicial killings, violations of rule to rule to law. So that way, he has become a voice, a spokesperson, a symbol of Naxalites for outside people. Fascinating history, absolutely. Moving on, can you talk about the Telangana movement, what that is for an audience that might not have ever even heard of it,

and what role VV.Ral played in that movement? This is actually Telangana movement per se cannot be called a revolutionary movement. It's a people's movement, but it's not a revolutionary moment. Even to analyze this, we have to again go back into history, as I referred earlier. India is a multinational country. Various nationalities are there, various languages are there. And this Naxalate Party from the beginning has been saying that even the national sentiments, though nationality sentiment may be a bourgeoisie sentiment and bourgeoisie leadership may be,

there, but it is an expression of class struggle. There people are participating. So that means popular sentiments are there. We have to join those movements. We have to join hands with that movements and slowly expose the bourgeoisie leadership and the bourgeoisie content of nationality movement and move, steer the nationality movement into the class struggle. This has been the next light ideology. So that way, Telangana movement is another peculiarity. Here, Andhra Pradesh was one single state formed on the basis of

single language Telugu. But due to historical reasons, there were two different regions in the same language-speaking people. One was under British rule for 300 years. and the other part was under a princely kingdom apart from British India for three, four hundred years. So both of them were speaking the same language, but not on the same wavelength, not on the same educational levels, not on the same economic levels, not on the same political levels. So from the beginning, though government of India in 1956 merged these two states to become one state, there have been a lot of friction between these two areas. And this friction expressed itself in one part, in Telangana part, as violation of their rights of their equal rights for education and employment. Actually, Telangana did not get its share of employment and education and budgetary allocations.

Because of this from 1968 onwards, Telangana people were asking for separation and for a separate state for themselves, going back to pre-1956 stage. and in 1968, when some academics held a seminar to show that where and how Telangana suffered injustice, wherever Rao was part of that academic group. So, at that time, he was entering Naxelite politics and he was also entering into a sub-nationality politics. So this sub-nationality politics and revolutionary politics were merged together in him. This Telangana sentiment continued occasionally from 68. In 68 71 it was crushed. 370 people were killed by police and that movement went into back stage. Revolutional movement came forward. But by mid-90s, again Telangana movement rose.

By mid-90s, Nuxleite movement was crushed and there was a lot of repression on Naxilite movement. And those cadders who felt the repression, they thought instead of this revolutionary moment, we can go and join the sub-nationality movement, which is quote-unquote a bourgeoisie movement. And there, without repression, we can work in people's struggles. So, again, party took Naxilite party, took that initiative and formed an organization for Telangana struggle. Apart from their own regular revolutionary activity and again, VIV was part of that struggle. But by 2001, a bourgeoisie party came and it spearheaded the movement, it lobbied with ruling classes and classes and said, if we allow this movement to go into the hands of this class struggle,

this revolutionary people, we are going to face a bigger danger. So we will come to a compromise and Telangana was formed in 2014 under the bourgeoisie leadership and Telangana lost. But now it is a ruthless, a brutal government in Telangana. much more brutal government in Kalangana. But this movement raised the consciousness of people. This movement saw, witnessed widespread participation of people. And VIV was one of the major inspiration forces in this movement.

He wrote a lot about this movement. He wrote poetry and he wrote essays and he gave poetry. public speeches also yeah fascinating so i mean you're doing an amazing job really bringing to life who v v is what his whole life has been about which is dedication to the liberation of oppressed people we talked about who he is as a human being his poetry the backlash he's had to endure his entire life and the various movements that he's threw through through in with and been involved with and helped lead in a lot of ways i just kind of want to shift now to talk about the current situation of V.V. Rao. Can you talk about where he is currently his recent COVID diagnosis

and the Indian States continued repression of him? In 2018, January 1st, there was a movement celebrating 200 years of Mahars, Dalits, the quote-unquote untouchable communities, victory over brahmanical forces, the fascist forces, the feudal forces. In 1818, under British army, these untouchables fought against a brahmanical rule and defeated that. In 2018, they wanted to celebrate 200th anniversary of that and that was seen as a merger of Dalit and revolutionary forces. the oppressed, most oppressed sections of India called Dalits who were untouchables till recently. Legally untouchability is a ban now, but even now it continues. But that is a potential force.

They are 15% of Indian population. If those forces join hands with revolutionaries, Naxalites, it is going to bring about revolution. that has to be curtailed, cuttilt. This was ruling class strategy. When these people were celebrating the 200 anniversary of Dalit revolt, Maoists also supported that celebration. Taking this as cue, police swooped down on Naxalite supporters, sympathizers all over India and fabricated a case called Bhima Koregaon violence case. Actually, the violence was committed by Brahmanical Roshtriya's Fyem Sevak Sang,

that is an organization of brahminical forces, fascist forces, that is a fascist organization. They openly supported Nazi's policies. That organization let loose violence on Dalit, the celebrating Dalits, but that was attributed to Naxalites. And because of their speeches, this violence happened and a case was posted. In that case, VIV was arrested in August, but immediately Supreme Court intervened and released him and said he can be kept under house arrest, till November he was under house

arrest for two and a half months. In November, he was taken to jail since then he is in various jails in Maharashtra. This case, even after two years, there is no charge sheet. Trial has not started. At least six times bail was rejected. Though in Indian jurisprudence, it is said, Supreme Court has set a principle that jail is exception, bail is ruled. But in VV's case, jail has become ruled and bail has exception for six times it was rejected. Recently, when the COVID-19 outbreak was there, we approached the court for actually Supreme Court said jails has to be decongested in this COVID scenario because in a jail where he is lodged, the jail's capacity was 2,100 and 3,600 prisoners were there.

Because of that crowding, there is every possibility of COVID infection spread. Supreme Court said these jails have to be decongested. Taking that queue, we went to the court and applied. for a new bail on grounds of health, age, he is now 80, he was born in 1940, age, health and COVID probability. But a session's court, a lawyer court rejected this and then we appealed to a higher court. When this came in higher court, by that time, our apprehension proved right and he was tested positive in jail.

Then he was moved to hospital. Even at that time, the National Investigation Agency, that is the prosecuting agency here, that prosecuting agency in court argued that

he is taking undue advantage of age and COVID. So that is how that cruel this state has been with him. And even now, that bail trial is going on. It's not coming onto the bench.

They are postponing and adjourning and adjourning. For the last six months, this urgent bail based on health and COVID grounds is going on. We don't know when they will grant a bail and he will come out. Since COVID lockdown, family visits are not allowed, suspended. lawyers visits are also suspended and even regular correspondence is suspended. But Supreme Court said because all these are suspended, they should be given at least a phone call per week. But in VV's case, even that is not followed. We have been given on and of phone calls.

actually between two phone calls we had 18 days duration also and in the last one month we only got one video conference from hospital that too on high court's orders but on 25th august he was again discharged on 18th august we had this video conference on 25th august he was discharged on 25th august he was discharged with a certificate as stable and normal. We don't know what is stable and what is normal. Last time also we did the they did the same thing. Now on August 25th he was moved back

to jail and we don't have any information. There is no official information to family or friends or lawyers. Even to court, we don't know how is he. We can only say on August

18th, he was physically very weak, but unlike previous occasions, mentally he was alert. In the previous occasions, he was incoherent, he could not speak well, he was not answering. That was because of electrolyte imbalance. His brain cells started getting damaged, but state is cruel and brutal and not allowing being. Yeah, I mean, there's nothing to do but just bring light to and denounce the Indian state's continued repression of VV Rao. And we here at Rev.F certainly stand in unshaking solidarity with you, with VV Rao, with your entire family, and with the revolutionary movement in India. And we'll continue to try to bring light and shed light on this situation so that people

around the world can become increasingly aware of this case and just how brutal and violent and unjust the Indian government is towards V.V. Rao and revolutionaries all across the board. Before I let you go, though, is there any way at all that listeners over here in the West can possibly help and where can they possibly go to learn more about Rao's life and his work? Actually, from the family, I would like to thank several friends and revolutionaries or liberals in hundreds and thousands have expressed their solidarity and sent memorandums and signed letters to the government of India, home ministry and government of Maharashtra. I request on behalf of the family that to continue this solidarity, to register your protests with the governments and bring pressure on the governments to get him released. And to find more about his life and his work, there have been an Indian press has been writing a lot about him in the last one, two months. and his complete life sketch, I have written on Indian Cultural Forum.in, that is a website of Indian Cultural Forum.

And on the whole of this case, I wrote about 15, 20 articles, and I made it into an e-book. Anybody if wants that e-book, they can send me a request on at Vianu-Pol-Raw-N at yahoo.com. V-E-N-U-G-O-P-A-L or A-O-N at Yahoo.com. WEN-G-P-R-N-A-O-N at Yahoo. I would be happy to share that booklet e-book with you. that gives a complete detail of his life and his persecutions and prosecutions and the Elgar-Parsha-Bem O'Karegong case. Thank you for joining your hands with family of PIV.

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you so much for coming on and educating me and my audience about this wonderful man and his life. You know, your struggle is ours. This is a global fight against fascism, imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism and capitalism. And I will provide a link to your email address for people who want to get that e-book and learn more. Thank you so much for coming on. Stay safe over there and solidarity. Thank you.

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