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A brief sketch about Varavara Rao - By well-known journalist and writer N. Venu Gopal: Varavara Rao, the best known Telugu revolutionary poet, public speaker, literary critic and emissary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) during the latter’s talks with the state government of Andhra Pradesh, both in 2002 and 2004, is once again under incarceration. The ruling classes in this south Indian state are indulging in a cruel and undemocratic harassment against him just because his political beliefs and practice are unpalatable to the powers that be. He has been a ‘prisoner of conscience’ since 1973, moving in and out of jails, under several false cases foisted by the police. In the last 32 years, he had spent about seven years in prison and 30 years attending various cases, though the government could not prove even a single charge against him in a single court of law. As the courts go on acquitting him from the fabricated charges of prosecution, the state machinery goes on inventing newer cases against him. As an accused in eight cases right now, he is languishing in Chanchalguda Central Prison in Hyderabad... More...
Foreword to Varavara Rao's 'Sahacharulu' - By poet Kaloji Narayan Rao (Abridged and translated to English by J.C and Jeedi): In the deference to the wishes of Arun Shourie, the editor of ‘Indian Express’, Varavara Rao has recounted what it is to live a prisoner in cramped quarters for a long time. He explained the anxieties the little society in jail (prisoners and staff) is subjected to. A look at this writing should tell us the Editor’s desire has amply been fulfilled... More...