Telangana Congress slams Amit Shah for calling poet Gaddar a ‘naxal’

Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee on Wednesday, April 1, hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his remarks describing late Telugu poet-revolutionary Gaddar as a “Naxal,” with party leaders demanding an apology and staging protests across the city.

TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud said Shah’s remarks were an insult not just to Gaddar but to the people of Telangana, and urged the Union Minister to retract his statement. 

“Gaddar spent his entire life fighting in solidarity with the farming and working classes. He raised his voice for Telangana through his songs,” Goud said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had praised the poet.

Goud also pointed out that the Congress government in Telangana had instituted the Gaddar Film Awards in the late poet’s honour and appointed his daughter Vennala as chairperson of the Telangana Samkrutika Sarathi.

What Amit Shah said

The remarks came after Shah, while addressing the Lok Sabha on the eradication of Naxalism, referred to Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s 2018 meeting with Gaddar, describing the poet’s ideology as “closely related to Naxals.” Shah cited the meeting to accuse the Congress of supporting Naxalism.

Meanwhile, Khairatabad District Congress Committee President Motha Rohit Mudiraj led a protest at Nallakunta, where an effigy of Shah was burnt. Mudiraj demanded an immediate apology from Shah and the resignation of BJP MPs from Telangana, particularly Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, accusing them of silence over the issue. 

He also urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to rename the road leading to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office as “Gaddar Marg.”

Who was Gaddar?

Born Gummidi Vitthal Rao, Gaddar was a poet, singer and communist revolutionary who rose to prominence through the Naxalite movement in the 1970s before becoming a leading voice in the Telangana statehood agitation. 

He was a founding member of the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War and founder of the Jana Natya Mandali. He played a significant role in drawing national attention to the Karamchedu massacre of 1987.