People's Democracy

MOTURU HANUMANTHA RAO was born in 1917, in a middle class farmer’s family in Vellatur village of Repalle taluq in Guntur district. He was drawn towards the national movement during his school days itself and became politically active since 1930. He started attending many meetings addressed by the freedom movement national level leaders. And here he came in touch with the Leftist camp in the Congress. He was attracted towards the communist movement and started studying the literature. He initially came in touch with Comrade M. Basavapunnaiah and along with Comrade L B Gangadhar Rao, worked actively in the student movement. His hostel room in the then political nerve centre "A.C. College" in Guntur had become a centre for Leftists. He attended the all India conference of AISF held at Calcutta in 1938.

In 1937 he became a member of the Communist Party. Since then facing innumerable difficulties and repression he had grown as a national level leader. In 1953 he became a member of the Central Committee of the undivided Communist Party. After the split in the party in 1964 he was elected state secretary of the CPI(M) and continued in that position till 1982. He was elected to the Polit Bureau in the Calcutta conference of the Party in 1998.

During the legendary Telangana armed struggle Comrade M H , as he was popularly known, played a leading role in building the movement in coastal Andhra area in its support. He played a courageous role in keeping the Party intact during the period of severe repression between 1948 and 1951. When he was leading underground life in 1949 he was arrested and shifted to Cuddalore jail. He was kept there for 29 months. Along with comrade A K G, M R Venkatraman and others, he led the struggles in the jail. He was on hunger strike for 28 days. The jail wardens resorted to firing twice to quell the resistance. Protesting against the firing he went on hunger strike once again for 21 days. When armed struggle was getting intensified he went to Pune forests for undergoing training in using weapons. When Gandhiji was assassinated, comrade

M H alongwith comrade Chandra Rajeswara Rao played a key role in the fight against RSS in Vijaywada.

He continued intensified internal struggle in the party on the necessity to continue the Telangana armed struggle. Along with comrade M B, comrade M H was instrumental in writing ‘Andhra Thesis’ and the document of "Tit for Tat" for safeguarding the movement. During that period comrade M H was taken into the Party’s state secretariat.

In 1969 and again in 1973 seperatist movements 'Jai Telangana' and 'Jai Andhra' started with a demand for dividing the state. "Visaalaandhralo Vishaadachaayalu" which he authored in 1972, had become a big weapon for those who were fighting for unity of the state. He used to organise big meetings in the state overcoming even physical attacks by disruptionists. M H participated in those meetings and delivered inspiring speeches.

Immediately after the formation of CPI(M), the Congress government had put 220 comrades in jail in Andhra Pradesh. Comrade M H was one among them.

During 1975-77 Emergency period – he went underground. During that period he authored Raajuvedalay-Ravitejamulalarag against Sanjay Gandhi’s intervention as an extra-constitutional authority and a book titled Padhakaalu- Phalitaalu exposing the real nature of Indira Gandhi’s 20-point formula.

His many articles under different pseudo names, during the emergency period were of immense use for the resistance movement. Later along with comrade Sundarayya he led the struggle and all-party movements during 1979-83.

Overall since 1940 he underwent four and a half years of imprisonment and five years of underground life. He served the Party while continuing his underground life for 19 months during the emergency period.

He married Udayam on May 5 1937 in a progressive manner and set an ideal example to the youth of that generation. Their lives were entwined with people's movements till the end. Udayam was the state secretary of A P Mahila Sangham till few years ago and was an active leader of the party until her health deteriorated. She is at present bed ridden. Their family consists of two daughters, both doctors.

Comrade M H was elected as MLA defeating the then prominent Congress leader Kalluri Chandramouli in the elections to the first Legislative Assembly in 1952. He was a member of the Legislative Council (MLC) from 1978 to 1984. He served as a member of Rajya Sabha from 1988 to 1994. He continued his services as Managing Trustee of M B Bhavan till his death.

A TALENTED COMMUNIST JOURNALIST

Apart from being a good organiser and marxist ideologue, Comrade M H was also a talented communist journalist. He had enormous experience in the press field

He had been the editor of Prajasakti since its inception as a daily in 1981. Due to ill health, he relinquished that responsibility a few weeks ago. Earlier he had worked as editor of Visalandhra daily for 8 years and later as the editor of Prajasakti and Janasakti weeklies. His writings were always very sharp and powerful. He was an experienced hand in making mincemeat of the enemies of people. He was an expert in analysing the problems and expressing them pin pointedly. In the context of split in the communist movement his writings were of great help in guiding the party cadre against revisionism and extremism. Even when Gorbachev adopted perestroika and glasnost in the then USSR, Comrade M H was the first one who pointed out the dangerous repercussions of these policies. And after the disintegration of the Soviet Union he was in the forefront in fighting disruptionist tendencies and conducting a vigorous ideological campaign within the party.

He authored several books on contemporary public issues. He visited Soviet Union, China, Rumania, USA and studied the social systems there.

Moturu Hanumantha Rao clearly was a multifaceted personality whose death is a great loss to the people and people’s struggles, especially to the communist movement, that cannot be easily filled. Messages of condolences are pouring in from many state and district committees of the party and from fraternal parties. Our red salute to Comrade M H.