A One in a Century Rights Activist

7/27/2019 A One in a Century Rights Activist

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commentary

NOVEMBER 14, 2009 vol xliv no 46 EPW Economic & Political Weekly8

a o i cu righs aivis

K G Kannabiran

Writing about Balagopal is like

scripting the history o the

human rights movement. For

him the Universal Declaration o Human

Rights was the announcement o the rights

that inhered in the people and the socie-

ties in which they lived. The third pream-

ble to the Declaration i man is not to be

compelled to have recourse as a last resort

to rebellion against tyranny and oppres-

sion, that human rights be protected by

the rule o law became the ocus o all his

human rights activities. Writing about him

involves penning his metamorphosis rom

a committed believer in the Naxalbari

movement to a human rights activist and

he dened the terms o his transition.

The movement came at a period o cri-

sis in the late 1960s and the only method

governments knew to tackle unrest was

to unleash repression. Pre-constitutionallaws intended to suppress anti-colonial

struggles were all adapted by the presi-

dent o India by way o abundant caution.

By the time the Naxalite movement

arrived at Srikakulam, the Constitution

was around 18 years o existence; Nehru,

the xed asset we inherited, was dead in

1964 and, ater some delays, the dynastic

succession was ound to be the proper

thing or the country. Post-independence,

the Marxist-Leninist (ML) movement threw

a comprehensive challenge to the Consti-

tution and its value system.

The Madras Suppression o Disturbances

Act o 1948 adapted belatedly and o doubt-

ul validity provided the g lea o legality

or the government o integrated Andhra

Pradesh (AP) to be used against the nascent

Naxalite movement. O interest is the act

that the same law that was introduced to

contain the Telangana Armed Struggle was

adapted by the president and used to pre-

vent the spread o the Naxalite movement.The orest areas rom Srikakulam to

Adilabad were declared Disturbed Areas;

the phenomenon o encounters was

brought on to the agenda. The brutal meth-

ods employed r emained unnoticed and a

ew hundreds were arrested in the Srikaku-

lam tribal areas. More than a thousand

activists were shot beore the proclamationo Emergency in 1975. Warangal produced

many ne intellectuals at this time who con-

ronted the repression, making that town

the storm centre o revolutionary activity.

Varavara Rao, who belongs to Warangal,

played a pivotal role in the movement. It

was the pedagogues in AP who led this

movement which spread like orest re.

I rdil Pliis

Ater the Emergency, in 1977 this gross

impunity was targeted, rst by the

Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) appointed

Tarkunde Committee, ollowed by the Jus-

tice Bhargava Commission o Enquiry,

which was later aborted by the Chenna

Reddy ministry. It was during this period

that Balagopal entering the Regional Engi-

neering College, Warangal, witnessed the

brutality employed by the police against

Naxalites. This set the course o his uture.

He became an ardent adherent o the poli-

tics o the Communist Party o India(Marxist-Leninist) (Peoples War Group)

[CPI(ML) (PWG)] and later he joined the

Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee

(APCLC). In 1983, he became the general

secretary o the APCLC. At around this

time he was implicated in the Police

Inspector Yadagiri Reddy murder case and

was arrested under the National Security

Act (NSA). This was later withdrawn.

Balagopals early writings, incisive and

exquisite, show that he was o Peoples

War persuasion. Even ater he came into

the civil liberties movement, his style was

polemical, and he was always unsparing

in his criticism. He extrapolated the Marx-

ist polemical style into the civil liberties

movement. I told him so, though then I

was perhaps alone in eeling this way since

most o the members in the APCLC were

rom the outer ringes o various actions

o Naxalites. This zero tolerance style can

be perceived in his reviews o A R Desais

compilation o peasant struggles or oeminist writings on the Telangana armed

struggle and encounters. Had he continued

K Balagopal metamorphosed rom

a committed believer in the

Naxalbari movement to a human

rights activist, dening the terms

o his transition. In doing so, he

rejected the choice o social

transormation by violence,

opting instead or such change

through a struggle or rights.

But the problem is that rights

campaigns by themselves will

not lead to social transormation.

As a lawyer, Balagopal showed

himsel as the only lawyer o the

poor o his generation with a

reputation or competence. The

poor knew that he was about the

one lawyer who believed in their

right to lie. In his competence

that equalled the lawyers o the

afuent he was visible. Balagopal

made the Court conscious that

he was appearing or a citizen

or a collective o citizens or

whose benet the Constitution

was created.

K G Kannabiran ([email protected])

is an eminent human rights lawyer and theNational President o the People's Union or

Civil Liberties.

remembering balagopal


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Economic & Political Weekly EPW NOVEMBER 14, 2009 vol xliv no 46 9

in the ML party, he would have been the

leading Marxist-Leninist ideologue o the

Maoist movement. Or perhaps he would

have been apprehended and shot, to be in-

cluded in the roll call o dead/martyrs

with which Gaddars perormances always

begin (yerrarani jenda eniyaloo). The ML

party needed in the civil liberties ront apowerul mind to conront the establish-

ment and broadcast the atrocities perpe-

trated on them. Writing about these would

also help spread the movement.

Although Balagopal never lost aith in

the politics o social transormation, he

ound the ML partys arbitrary political

practice objectionable. Ater the break

with the politics o the Peoples War Group,

he could no longer reconcile the vision with

arbitrary practices. The vision demands

acceptance o all the distortions. He

rejected Marx because the system based

on his thought produced distortions even

ater the Soviet and east European experi-

ence as in China. He appears to have had

in mind an inchoate idea o social trans-

ormation which would be catalysed by

people trained in rights advocacy who

would discipline the Right, the Let and

governance. To my mind, he was moving

closer to the ideas o Tom Paine that the

government, like a dress, is the badge olost innocence. He began to believe in the

total empowerment o the people where

leaders would only exercise the delegated

authority o the people. The existing rep-

resentative system, in this view, strength-

ened perhaps by the 73rd and 74th amend-

ments, could be the instrumentalities

through which peoples empowerment

would maniest it.

a Uslig f Fih

In an interview published in Prajatantra

in March 2001 on the Telugu novelRago,

Balagopal expressed the view that the

Marxist world view is decient in certain

respects and that his philosophical investi-

gations had reached a certain satisactory

stage. However, having said that, he never

completed the task o elaborating upon his

philosophical position. He was not the rst

either to make such a statement. Beore him,

M N Roy, expelled rom the Comintern

(the Third International), talked abouttranscending Marxism and ormulated his

thesis paving the way or the emergence

o the Radical Humanists. Although this

group did not make any headway in

politics, it was prominent in the civil liber-

ties movement. V M Tarkunde, advocate

C T Dharu rom Gujarat, and M V Rama-

murthi rom Andhra come to mind.

Communist parties, whether they are

parliamentary or extremist, have a tra-dition o intolerance o criticism and o

dierence o opinion within the party.

Balagopal thereore had to part company

with the CPI(ML)(PWG) or his unsparing

criticism o the party. In a collection o

writings published in Telugu in 1998 on

The Three Decades of Naxalbari (a collection

o essays where Manoranjan Mohanty,

G Haragopal, Venugopal, and Varavara

Rao, among others, were contributors).

Balagopal also wrote a piece entitled The

Darker Side o the Naxalite Movement

(Cheekati Konalu) in which his rst sen-

tence was: There are many who would

like to write about the Naxalbari move-

ment, but I am going to write about the

darker side o the movement. His essay

alone, among the articles published in the

collection, was orthrightly critical o the

arbitrary political practices o the move-

ment. This called or a very high order o

intellectual courage and the outspoken-

ness o his style unailingly revealed to thereader the seamy side o their political

practice. It is reminiscent o the collection

o essays by people who were drawn into

the communist movement edited by Rich-

ard Crossman (1949) entitled The God that

Failed. Just as The God that Failed did in

the 1950s, Balagopals essay created a stir,

an unsettling o aith in some o the sym-

pathisers and others who had hopes in the

movement. But unlike The God that Failed,

Balagopals essay did not have any lasting

impact nor did his departure rom the

movement leave a lasting impression on

the movement or bring about any visible

change towards the Maoists among the

people with whom he worked.

Sceptical about the Marxist world view,

Balagopal moved away rom the idea o a

revolutionary restructuring o the society

in Marxist terms where violence plays

the midwie. He also moved away rom

Maos thought summed up in a very

catchy aphorism Power fows rom thebarrel o a gun. From a creative gure o

speech used by Marx to an emphasis on

power rom the barrel o the gun was a

quantum leap

Balagopal did not opt or social trans-

ormation by violence. He opted or social

transormation through a struggle or

rights. The problem is that rights cam-

paigns will not lead to social transorma-

tion by themselves. When we talk aboutrights we are using the concept o right in

the context o state power, and in the con-

text o social domination in hierarchical

societies by the higher castes in the social

order. Though Balagopals critical essay

led policemen to purchase quite a number

o copies o the book, it did not lessen the

attack on human rights activists.

a G righs aivis

The characteristic response o the PWG was

polemical badgering not introspection

and correction. The attack rom the party

made it impossible or him to continue in

theAPCLCwithout riction and with dignity.

But Balagopals career as a human rights

person did not come to an end. He ound-

ed the Human Rights Forum in 1998 and

by the time o his death he became known

as one o the nest deenders o human

rights in the country. This break made him

a great rights activist. I am not aware,

however, o any writing o his comprehen-sively setting orth his views on rights.

One thing I know is that rights by them-

selves do not have a transormatory

character. The Declaration o Human

Rights 1948, in the third Preamble to the

Declaration states that i these rights are

ignored, governance will become tyranni-

cal and the response is rebellion and that

observance o these rights will ensure a

stable government. Such an enunciation

has an overtly political content. These are

in the nature o prescriptions or the

political stability o states. The stress,

since the second world war, has been or a

gradual and slow qualitative transorma-

tion in the state and its governance. Rights

advocacy alone may not help bringing

about social change, although it would

create the awareness o rights and justice

that will strengthen movements or social

transormation. In act, human rights

activity is vibrant when it is linked to the

politics o a party with a vision or in theght against authoritarianism and or a

return to liberal democracy.


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NOVEMBER 14, 2009 vol xliv no 46 EPW Economic & Political Weekly10

Balagopal was very close to me. Our

association started in 1983 when he was

elected to the APCLC as its general secre-

tary and we were together until 1993 when

ater around 15 years I stepped down rom

the presidents position. We met almost

every day during the 10-year period. From

1994 when I was elected president o thePeoples Union or Civil Liberties (PUCL),

we were operating in the same sphere and

we used to meet oten and exchange notes.

Ater his entry intoAPCLC we continued to

ght human rights violations with more de-

termination. He was possessed o a ne mind

that commanded his pen. He rst assisted

me in the Warangal Enquiry Commission

against police excesses where they beat up

some elected representatives. It was, I think,

in 1997. By the time he had acquired a law

degree rom Bangalore. It was in Warangal

that I got him his rst black coat that would

enable him to sit beside me and assist me. I

later moved or his enrolment as an advo-

cate and he helped me in the Bangalore

Conspiracy Case (1992-99) against Naxalites

which ended in a total acquittal.

When the Deendar Anjuman was banned

in 2000 (and the ban extended in 2002)

under the Unlawul Activities Prevention

Act 1967, we appeared together beore the

tribunal constituted under the Act. We hadsittings at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi.

That matter is pending in the high court.

muld b h Pli

Balagopal was mauled and brutally

attacked by the police quite a ew times

but this never demoralised him. I distinctly

remember when the rst chairman o the

National Human Rights Commission

(NHRC), Ranganath Misra along with Jus-

tice Fathima Beevi held their sitting in

Hyderabad in 1995, they visited Warangal

or a day. When the Commission was hold-

ing the sittings in one room, in another

Balagopal was pummelled in the presence

o people present there. The press reported

the act and the chairman was hesitant o

taking cognisance o the act. In the

evening I called the chairman about the

incident and he was not willing to proceed

against the police. He was going to Nalgonda

the next day. I told him I would be at Nal-

gonda too. When I was asked to sit next tothe members, there was a protest and

I went down rom the elevated platorm.

I was also surrounded and sted in the

presence o the chairperson and the other

member. The chairman o the NHRC saw

this but, helpless, let in a hu. Anyway, in

the ull dressed enquiry in the guesthouse

at Hyderabad on our encounters they held

that three encounters were homicides, re-

quired investigation and prosecution, andin one incident they held we could not

prove a case. The state government never

complied with the report.

a Ppls Lw

We have been challenging encounter

killings at various levels. In 1997 we

secured a judgment, which recognised that

these killings were homicides and needed

examination. Later a ull bench reversed

this decision with some wishy-washy rea-

soning and so it was reerred to a larger

bench o ve judges. We argued and

placed our views beore the larger bench

along with other colleagues in 2008. The

ull bench returned a unanimous verdict

that killings need to be investigated ater

the crime is reported. This case is pending

in the Supreme Court. Balagopal and I

appeared together in all these matters.

Balagopal was the only poor peoples

lawyer o his generation with a reputation

or competence. People knew that he wasabout the one lawyer who believed in their

right to lie. He wrested the right to audience

rom the court. In his competence that

equalled the lawyers o the afuent, he was

visible. He made the court conscious that

he was appearing or a citizen or a collec-

tive o citizens or whose benet the Con-

stitution was created. His was a radical ap-

proach to the Constitution but he was

bound by institutional norms. He accepted

the law as dened by precedents but didnot stretch the limits o the principle or

break new ground to innovate a principle

to advance the jurisprudence o the poor.

My view, on the contrary, has always been

that appearing or the poor and as lawyers

or social change one should always at-

tempt to break new ground or innovate

and strive or its acceptance. We must

make the contentions and the conceptions

we innovate amiliar in courts i they are to

be accepted later. The legitimacy o the sta-

tus quo and against social transormation

is so strong in courts that it becomes neces-

sary or lawyers o the poor to acquire the

competence to contend with the opponents

o social change. What is important is that

poor people should be able to engage com-

petent lawyers, more competent and much

more committed than the lawyers or the

afuent. He built up a credibility, which as-

sured respect rom judges. Balagopal was a

person o tremendous physical and moral

courage. He remained untouched by akeencounters only because o his moral stat-

ure and earlessness. Balagopals sudden

death is a setback to this tradition.

Indian Council for Research inInternational Economic Relations (ICRIER)

invites research papers

ICRIER invites proposals for research papers under its Strategic &

Economic Capacity-building Programme (SECP). The focus of the

SECP is on international strategic/economic issues of the future,

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http://www.icrier.org/research/ongoing_strategicSECP.htm


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Economic & Political Weekly EPW NOVEMBER 14, 2009 vol xliv no 46 11

QuissilIllul-aivis

P A Sebastian, Bernard Dmello

P A Sebastian ([email protected]) and

Bernard DMello ([email protected])

are with the Committee or the Protection o

Democratic Rights, Mumbai.

K Balagopals role as a civil

liberties and democratic rights

activist had two phases the rst,

when the opening sentence o the

Communist Manifesto and Marxslast thesis on Feuerbach guided

his lies activity, and

the second, when, even as he

gave up on these precepts, he

continued in the tradition o

practical humanism.

KBalagopal passed into the annals

o history on 8October 2009 at the

age o 57. He was a doyen o the

civil liberties and democratic rights

(CL&DR) movement in India.

As a student Balagopal was not involvedin public activities. He did his post-doctoral

research at the Indian Statistical Institute,

New Delhi. While at the institute, he wrote

a paper on a subject in mathematical sta-

tistics which was widely acclaimed in spe-

cialist circles. Balagopal had huge prospects

anywhere in the world in his specialised

eld o study. He, however, made a conscious

decision not to tread the careerist path to

personal-proessional success, coming

back to Andhra Pradesh and joining the

Kakatiya University in Warangal, among

the most backward districts in the state.

Simultaneously, he joined the CL&DR

movement with ervour and devotion.

th rdil

In 1983, the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liber-

ties Committee (APCLC) elected him as its

general secretary, a post he consecutively

held until he resigned in 1998. Balagopal

underwent several ordeals when he was the

APCLCgeneral secretary. Once, or instance,the Andhra Pradesh police abducted and

blindolded him and took him to an

unknown place. In his presence the police-

men discussed how and when to kill him

and the details o the press release which

they would issue claiming that he was

killed in an encounter. He was imprisoned

more than once in the course o which he

lost his job at the Kakatiya University. He

braved all and continued to document the

character o state power, the brutality, the

lawlessness, the ruthlessness with which it

dealt with the Naxalite/Maoist movement

in Andhra Pradesh.

Cooperating with the counterparts o

the APCLC in other states, he travelledthroughout the length and breadth o

India, not as a tourist but as a member o

joint act-nding teams. The act-nding

teams documented the violations oCL&DR

and presented them beore the general

public as they had happened. All the act-

ndings ocused on what is popularly

known as human rights. Human rights

eectively mean acilities which will ena-

ble human beings to live with dignity and

sel-respect. And nobody can live with

dignity and sel-respect unless one has

ood to eat, clothes to wear, a house to

stay, resources at ones disposal to edu-

cate ones children and wherewithal to

get access to medicines and medical treat-

ment when one and ones amily all ill.

The vast majority o people in India do

not have these acilities. Devoid o such

provisions, ordinary people ultimately

rise in rebellion and the government un-

leashes the police and the armed orces

on them. This is what the act-ndingteams reported on. They refected the

reality o India.

We had initiated the trend o looking at

law and the Constitution quite radically

and Balagopal carried this trend orward

and argued in a way that would embarrass

socially sensitive judges. This jurispru-

dence o insurgence that we brought on to

the agenda received a setback with his un-

timely death. When C V Subba Rao o thePeoples Union or Democratic Rights (PUDR)

was alive, he gave me the bookLaw and the

Rise of Capitalism by Michael E Tigar and

Madeleine Levy during one o my visits to

Delhi. It was here I read about the concept

o Jurisprudence o Insurgence. They illus-

trated this by Fidel Castros attempt at

stalling Batistas coup by ling a proceed-

ing beore the Cuban Court or the arrest and

prosecution o Batista or attempting to engi-

neer a coup and which was dismissed. Batista

successully engineered a coup and a ew

days thereater Fidel Castro was produced

beore the court or trial o a conspiracy.

Today Castro is with us as the leader o theonly socialist country ater surviving innu-

merable attempts o assassination.

A long time back, when I was busy with

the Commission o Enquiry chaired by

Vashishta Bhargava in 1978-79, I used to

discuss the politics o the communist

movement with comrade P Sundarayya.

One day I told him that it was time or

him to draw a balance sheet o his lie and

I asked how he proposed to do that. He

was old and a ter talking about the split

in the movement he told me that several

brilliant young people were shot and,

tears welling in his eyes, continued and

or the people to produce even one suchleader it might even take a hundred years.

That would be the scale o setbacks.

That statement o Sundarayya now comes

back to me. To nd another like Balagopal

might take another 10 decades. A brilliant

candle extinguished beore its time. I

weep or Balagopal he is dead.

Documents

A One in a Century Rights Activist