It was a heart – rending scene when the mother exclaimed: “I am proud of you my son”. Rajalakshmi Sounderrajan, mother of Saketh Rajan paid homage to her son in this manner but her voice choked, when she said: “… but I cannot look at your body.”
It was only after top Police Officers called at her apartment in Vani Vilas Mohalla here during their investigation into the case and left, that media persons could meet her and talk to her. Tears welled up from her eyes as she was trying to gather strength of mind in order to listen to the enquires from the reporters and respond with great mental agony.
She managed to mumble these first words: “I am not in a mental state to look at my son’s body. The press reports have given gruesome details about it, saying that the body is riddled with bullets causing holes on the forehead and exposing his skull – bone. How can I muster courage to see his body? No, it is just not possible.”
“My son has not committed any crime. He was not given to any bad habit. He used to confide in me about his compassion for the poor. He was not wicked. He had not done even a single bad act. It was only after I read in the newspapers quite recently that I learnt about his taking to violence,” Rajalakshmi managed to say.
Continuing in low voice and speaking slowly, often with pause, she explained:
“My son’s life was full of ideals while he was young and growing. He had only two sets of clothes to wear. He used to wash his plate himself and store it away.”
Rajalakshmi could be faintly heard saying that Saketh was affection personified. “He was truly a revolutionary. He did not bow his head before the Police even while facing death. But, the society did not approve of his ways and views. It is my fate (Karma). He met his end this way,” she said wiping her tears.
Interesting facts about Comrade Saketh Rajan
Brother:
“Anandaraj, his brother, succumbed in 1983 to injuries sustained in an accident. Saketh left home a couple of months after that. It has been about 21 years since then. That was the last I saw of him,” she recalled.
He did not come home when his father died, nor even to see if his mother was still alive. However, I feel proud about my son. He was not the one to commit any crime.”
Journalism:
Saketh Rajan was 12 years old when his father Major Sounderrajan took retirement from Defence Services and returned to Mysore. After obtaining BA Degree in Journalism from Maharaja’s College, Mysore, and Saketh Rajan obtained Post – Graduate degree from Indian Institute of Mass Communications, New Delhi. Later, he came to Mysore and was writing for local newspapers in English and Kannada. His close friends say that even while in the capital, he was thoroughly unhappy about the establishment.
First rank:
In the convocation held in the capital, having secured the first rank in the Post – Graduate degree, Saketh was to receive the award and certificate from the Minister Vidya Charan Shukla. He proceeded to the dais. But, without receiving the certificate from the Minister, nor even shaking hands with him, Saketh had walked off the dais, as a show of his anger against the establishment, recalled one of his friends who used to accompany him in Naxal camps.
Prem:
Saketh Rajan, after moving away from Mysore and arriving in Andhra Pradesh, took to the name Prem and developed close contacts with the People’s War Group (PWG). He had married journalist Rajeshwari, sister of Jagannath, who had identified himself with PWG. She was also killed in an encounter. After becoming a full – fledged Naxalite, Prem used to be seen once in a way only by a few friends in Mysore, it is learnt.
http://www.ourkarnataka.com/Articles/starofmysore/mothershomage.htm
Since I live in Karnataka, I used to follow up on comrade
Saketh Rajan and the revolutionary situation in Karnataka.
When I heard he had been shot in an encounter – It broke my heart.
I instantly knew the revolutionary movement in Karnataka had suffered a
severe setback.
Great leaders never die they forever live on in our hearts.
– Stalingam
Previous Posts on Comrade Saketh Rajan
February 6th, 2005 is a most tragic day in the history of the revolutionary movement not only in Karnataka but also for the whole country. On that day, the people of Karnataka lost one of its brave sons; on that fateful day the Party, Communist Party of India (Maoist), lost one of its invaluable leaders and a fighter; on this day the revolutionary movement in Karnataka suffered a severe blow.
On receiving definite information about the movement of the squad and Com. Saketh from a notorious landlord and informer Shesha Gowda, and a Bajarang Dal goon, near Menasinahadya village of Koppa Taluk in the Western Ghats, about 80 policemen, led by Dy. SP Shivakumar, divided into four groups and reached that place from all directions around 1.00 am. At 6.00am, when the squad came out of the house, the blood-thirsty police thugs surrounded them and started firing. Although the comrades were surprised by the sudden burst of firing, the squad retaliated.
But Com. Saketh Rajan and Shivalingu, who fought heroically for the liberation of the poor and oppressed till their last breath, fell to the bullets of the enemy. Other members of the squad retreated safely. The brutality of the killers was evident from the way the crime was committed. The back portion of the head of Com. Saketh was blown off. He was shot from a rifle at point blank range from behind. Com. Shivalingu was also shot in the stomach from behind. Yet, many intellectuals raised doubts about this encounter considering that the police and CM conspired to dispose of the dead body without giving it to his comrades and even the mother. Serious doubts are that it was a fake encounter so as to hide the torture marks from the body.
Enraged by this gruesome murder the revolutionary masses, democrats and intellectuals expressed their strong protest. Suspecting foul play in the whole incident the Citizen Forum for Peace Initiative demanded re-post-mortem of the deceased, to stop the ongoing operation against the Naxalites in Malnad, and to conduct a judicial enquiry into the encounter. They met the vicious CM, Dharam Singh, and requested him to hand over the bodies to them.
The liar CM promised to hand over the bodies but refused to stop the ongoing operation against the Naxalites. Even as the sympathizers and supporters began making arrangements for paying the last tributes and homage to the beloved comrades, the police stealthily took away the bodies from the mortuary and cremated them without the presence of the relatives or the sympathizers.
True to his chameleon nature the CM approved the cremation of the bodies by the police. As the news of the cremation leaked out the supporters and sympathizers, who were in the mortuary protested against this inhuman conduct of the police. Panicking by the growing anger of the revolutionary masses and the sympathy wave among the wider sections of the broad masses, and fear of exposure of their brutalities and conspiracy, the police conducted the cremation by using brutal force. More than 400 policemen were mobilized at the crematorium; and the cremation was completed by deception and at gunpoint.
Long live Comrades Saketh Rajan (Prem) and Shivalingu (Arun)!
Hail the martyrdom of our beloved Martyrs!
Related posts
Who was Comrade Saketh Rajan ?
Comrade Saketh Rajan hailed from an orthodox upper caste, upper class background. His father was a Major in the army. Discontented with this inhuman social system and the hypocrisy of the rulers he was dedicated to the cause of the poor and oppressed since his student days. As reported in the Indian Express: His parents had expected him to become an engineer. But he dropped out of the B.Tech course and chose to study literature instead. He then studied Mass Communications at the IIMC, New Delhi.
As narrated by his college friend, Lingaraj Gandhi, and now professor at the Mysore University, “Saketh read voraciously and widely. The book
“Wretched of the Earth”, by Franz Fanon had an enormous impact on him. I was confused, but he was beginning to make up his mind.. Then there was no looking back”.
Imbibed with the great ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and inspiration for the advancement of the revolutionary movement in AP, his compassion for the poor and oppressed transformed him into a dedicated revolutionary. He completely integrated himself with the revolutionary movement since 1983.
Com.Saketh started as a student organizer and was one of the most committed Communist Revolutionaries of Karnataka. He played an active role in almost all struggles and built the party from scratch. To name a few he was in the forefront in exposing the expansionist designs of the Indian ruling classes in setting up of the Rare Earth Material Plant, at Ratnahalli near Mysore, where the enrichment of Uranium, which can be used for nuclear bombs, is produced.
He played a leading role in thwarting the joint venture of imperialist and comprodor ruling classes of Karnataka in setting up the “Japan Industrial Township” at Sattanur near Bangalore and the expansion of mining activities in the Western Ghats by the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL).
In 1987, he was elected to the State Committee in the first state conference of Karnataka, and in the fourth state conference in 2000, elected as the state Secretary. He was the delegate to the 9th All India Congress of the erstwhile CPI (ML)(Peoples War) and was elected to the CC as an alternate member.
In his two decades of revolutionary life, he never wavered even for a moment. He creatively applied the ideology and partys political line to the concrete conditions of Karnataka. The revolutionary movement in Karnataka is still weak. But this did not deter Com. Saketh from proceeding in his duty to build a guerrilla zone with the perspective of Base Area in the Malnad region. It is not an exaggeration to say that he was the “brain and spine” of the revolutionary movement in Malnad.
Under the guidance of MLM, he was meticulous in studying the concrete conditions in Malnad and drawing up a plan of action to achieve that task. He was not only the “brain” but also an activist, organizer, comrade-in-arms and the commander of the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army. He was an astute student of Com. Mao in integrating with the Dalits, Adivasis and other oppressed masses. He adopted the Maoist style of functioning of leading the movement from the “field”. He was a good “teacher” and at the same time being a good “student” ready to learn from everyone.
As a true intellectual dedicated to the liberation of the people of India, particularly Karnataka, he adopted the Marxist methodology of understanding history from a historical materialist standpoint. He authored two volumes of “Making History” one of the most scholarly works in the historical study of Karnataka. While partaking in all the strenuous work of the Party and living a life in underground Saketh read profusely about Karnataka history. This resulted in his penning two volumes of “Making History”, the second of which was published barely a year back. As the Indian Express says “and perhaps the only extremist whose scholarly work is read in a university in the same state that shot him dead yesterday.Parts of this work are now being taught at Mangalore University”.
The first volume traced the history of Karnataka from the first signs of human habitation till the time of British conquest. It ended with the martyrdom of Tippu Sultan. The second volume traced the development of Karnataka history from the time of British conquest in 1799 till the First war of Indian Independence in 1857. The third volume was to explore into the impact of British colonialism on Karnataka from 1858 to 1947.
Though the third volume may never see the light of day, due to his pre-occupation with advancing the rural movement and armed struggle in Karnataka in the period before his martyrdom, the first two volumes are a brilliant example of the application of historical materialism to a study of past history of the country. In its depth of analysis and penetrating scientific approach it can be put on par with some of the writings by the renowned Marxist historian D.D.Kosambi.
With a flair and fluency in English and Kannada, the ability to sum-up the information in a systematic way with an ideological outlook, he wrote many articles in the party journals.
This heroic communist, who wielded The Pen & Gun with Equal Proficiency, will be remembered by the people of India for his two big contributions to the Indian revolution. First, it was he who, together with others, pioneered the initiation of armed struggle under communist leadership in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. Second, it was he, under the pen-name Saki, who has penned the history of Karnataka in his two volumes of “Making History” tracing the history of the Kannadiga nationality from the earliest of times to 1857.
His loss is an insurmountable blow for the party in Karnataka. But the path he showed, the path of sacrifice for the noble cause of establishing a New Democratic India towards building Socialism and Communism, will definitely inspire the party and the people of Karnataka. They are sure to emulate the dedication of Com. Saketh Rajan for the revolution and liberation of the oppressed masses and the determination in fighting the enemy in achieving that noble cause till his last breath.
Let us pay our red tributes and homage to our beloved martyrs by advancing the struggle in the path shown by them.
As Com., Gonzala said, let us ” Snatch the victory from the mouth of death”.
