On May 24, Saibaba along with Varavara Rao and others were scheduled to speak at a public gathering in Warangal and on High Court order, was prevented from doing so. “When I was abducted and arrested two years back, the first thing the officer told me was to shut up. They didnt want me to speak. It is disappointing that after two years when I have come here, I am hearing the same thing.” On Telangana: GN Saibaba, who is an alumnus of both University of Hyderabad and the English and Foreign Languages University, said that the new state is a mark of freedom. “People have fought rigorously and set the values. I have desired a lot. Unfortunately, it has not happened. Unless land is liberated from corporate exploitation, there cannot be people’s democracy,” said the professor, adding that “fight for adivasi is not in support of maoists. It is a fight for our own as we cannot survive without adivasis and forests.” On Students movements across campuses: "Another students movement will start after the summer vacation. Students are trying to identify themselves with the larger group against fascist tendencies. I want to document and bring together all the students movements from across the country. The aim is to gather teachers’ support in students movement.” |
HYDERABAD: It is the pages smuggled out from Nagpur’s high security central prison over a period of three months which will make Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba’s latest book. He was recently released on bail after spending two years in jail following being charged under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
While speaking at Lamakaan in Hyderabad, he said the book titled ‘Yuddakalamlo Swapnaalu - balya gnapakalu’ is a Telugu translation of “Dreams in a time of war- A childhood memoir” by Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o and would hit the stands in a couple of months with an introduction from revolutionary writer P Varavara Rao.
“The entire jail was infested with intelligence officers. There would be constant raids in my cell and they would take away anything they found suspicious. I was not allowed to write a sentence in Telugu even as part of a letter to my mother or wife,” said Saibaba who is in Hyderabad.
He was gifted the book by a friend and after finding similarities between the Mau Mau movement mentioned in the book and the ongoing dalit-adivasi movement in India, he decided to translate it. “For three months, each page I wrote would be immediately hidden in any of the 29 Anda cells and reached to the prisoner who had a scheduled court visit. He would carry it in his underwear and hand it over to his lawyer and then my lawyer,” said the professor who is 90 per cent disabled.
He also shared how seven adivasi boys, who had learnt about him in the prison, fought for 20 days to get him basic rights. For first three days, he said, he was not given food, water and toilet facilities in jail. “It took nine months to construct a small western toilet inside my cell and till date it does not work. It took four months to get me a new wheel-chair which my wife brought from Delhi. Till then I was crawling and no support,” he recalled.
Varavara Rao, president of banned organisation Revolutionary Democratic Front(RDF) of which Saibaba is the joint secretary, said that campaign that paved way for the professor’s release should continue till he is reinstated. Saibaba added that a public movement should campaign for bringing out hundreds of other political prisoners languishing in jails.