Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6
Martyrs memorial special issue of 15-31 March 2015 paying tributes to Bhagat Singh and other comrades.
Martyrs memorial special issue of 15-31 March 2015 paying tributes to Bhagat Singh and other comrades.
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(20<strong>15</strong>) 1 LAW Paruchuri Hanumantha Rao (I.M. <strong>Sharma</strong>) 9<br />
detention, we were released sometime in 1951.<br />
I worked as correspondent for Vishalandhra at<br />
Madras for a long time after independence. I very<br />
much know about the fasting of Potti Sriramulu<br />
since I used to visit his camp and report the<br />
details to Vishalandhra. Bulusu Sambamurthy was<br />
seen there many times encouraging Sriramulu to<br />
continue his fast to death. He himself was eating fruits<br />
and talking when Sriramulu was fasting for days<br />
together which struck to me as somewhat odd.<br />
Sambamurthy himself refused to fast but used to<br />
say to Sriramulu who was much younger than<br />
him: “Hi, Sriramulu, you don’t have a wife or<br />
children. So continue to fight and die for the<br />
cause. You will earn a good name.” On the last<br />
day of the fast Chandra Rajeswara Rao and I<br />
went together to visit Sriramulu. However, it<br />
should be said to the credit of Sriramulu that he<br />
was always quite firm and never wavered in his<br />
determination to fast unto death.<br />
As for the controversy that the communists did<br />
not press for inclusion of Madras in Andhra Province,<br />
which was the chief demand of Potti Sriramulu, I can<br />
only say that it was an impractical demand. Already<br />
Madras was an overwhelmingly Tamilian<br />
majority city and though there was a talk of<br />
partition of Madras too at one time the Tamilians<br />
would never have agreed to it. On this aspect<br />
Prakasam Pantulu, Tenneti Viswanadham and us<br />
communists jointly held a big public meeting at<br />
Madras in the premises of Velagapudi<br />
Ramakrishna’s factory. There was no consensus<br />
in it but in their speeches Prakasam and<br />
Viswanatham declared that a resolution calling<br />
for the formation of Andhra State including<br />
Madras in it was passed and then quickly left the<br />
place. All people thought that the meeting was<br />
over and began to disperse. But Chandra<br />
Rajeswara Rao announced from the dais that the<br />
meeting was far from over, no consensus<br />
resolution was passed and called the people back.<br />
Narla Venkateswar Rao was asked to preside the<br />
meeting and Nagi Reddy gave a wonderful<br />
speech for about one hour patiently explaining<br />
the entire situation and ultimately a resolution calling<br />
for the immediate formation of the Andhra Province<br />
with al the undisputed areas included in it was passed.<br />
I think it was a wise resolution. I am of the<br />
opinion that it was our mistake to have given up<br />
Bellary, which was mainly a Telugu city, and not<br />
Madras, which was even then mainly a Tamil<br />
city. Later a huge public meeting was held at Law<br />
College Grounds, Madras on the issue of Andhra<br />
Province to which leaders from all parties were<br />
invited. There was a very tense and electric<br />
atmosphere and if anybody were to oppose<br />
inclusion of Madras in Andhra Province the<br />
audience would have thrown stones, etc.<br />
Velagapudi Ramakrishna from Justice Party,<br />
some Congress party leaders, Tenneti<br />
Viswanadham of Praja Party, Gowthu Latchanna<br />
and Tarimela Nagi Reddy from our communist<br />
party addressed the meeting. In that surcharged<br />
meeting Nagi Reddy spoke excellently for one<br />
hour in chaste Royalaseema Telugu without<br />
openly asking us to give up Madras but hinting<br />
that we should not insist on its inclusion, etc. and<br />
drew applause from the crowd.<br />
After the defeat in 1955 General Elections to<br />
the Andhra Assembly our Communist Party of<br />
India got very much disheartened and the entire<br />
apparatus of fulltime party workers was almost<br />
disbanded. Every worker was asked to look after<br />
his own livelihood and then if it was possible do<br />
free service for the party too. In such a situation I<br />
happened to enter the cine field for a time.<br />
Varalakshmi, C.V.R. Prasad, Kondepudi<br />
Lakshminarayana, and some others also entered<br />
the film arena at that time. Until then though I<br />
had taken part in IPT and possessed some cultural<br />
talents I was largely in the student organizational<br />
field or journalistic field as correspondent for<br />
Vishalandhra. Yarlagadda Ramakrishna Prasad,<br />
brother of Challapalli Zamindar, was somewhat<br />
friendly and sympathetic to us and had some<br />
progressive ideas. Of course he was mainly a<br />
businessman only but had good contacts and<br />
rapport with S.V. Narsaiah (SVK Prasad’s<br />
brother) and used to help our AISF activities. He<br />
wanted to establish a film studio in Hyderabad<br />
after the formation of Vishalandhra (Andhra<br />
Pradesh). Thus was born the Sarathi Studio at<br />
Amirpet, Hyderabad and I was asked to look after<br />
9<br />
Law Animated World, <strong>15</strong>-<strong>31</strong> <strong>March</strong> 20<strong>15</strong>