Capturing people’s issues

Ailamma Art Gallery is showcasing a photography exhibition titled ‘Mahajana Padayatra’, which is a photo narrative of record 4,200-kilometer-long walk with the slogan of social justice and composite development of the state. The Mahajana Padayatra (Great People’s March) led by CPI (M) Telangana State Secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram along with a nine-member team consists of different sections of the toiling masses, youth, students, women, and minorities.

A group of photojournalists includes KN Hari, Ramesh, Venkatesh and Takur Rajender Singh accompanied the Padayatra and chronicled this great event. They caught all the moments and moods of the Padayatra and the people who met the Padayatra team with their constantly watchful cameras unmindful of the hardships they face all along.

The Padayatra began at Ibrahimpatnam, Rangareddy district on 17 October 2016 and continued for more than five months, exactly 154 days uninterruptedly. It covered all nooks and corners of newly formed Telangana State from Ranga Reddy in the west, Karimnagar in the east, Adilabad in north and Nalgonda in the south.

Photojournalist KN Hari said, “It was a great experience for me as a photojournalist for covering such a great initiative. In the five-month-long event, we were exposed to different people and cultures.

We covered all urban, rural, tribal and Adivasi areas of the state and interacted with the people all along. People greeted us wholeheartedly and spoke about their woes with the hope of getting them solved at least in the new state,”

The Padayatra team patiently listened to people’s issues and written letters to the government every day brought to its notice the problems of the particular section of the people and the area. They also explained to the people the real solutions for all their problems lies in the achievement of welfare and composite development with social justice and put forward the alternative strategy.

“We feared to enter some villages due to the some government leaders. In some villages, many Sarpanch’s didn’t allow us to the villages for the Padayatra but people came forward and flighted against their own village officials and took us to their homes. We observed that most of the villages do not have graveyards. Despite the hot weather, we continued the Yatra through rocks between Adilabad, Nirmal, and Aasifabad. The exhibition is a symbolic representation of how Padayatra became a huge success,” added KN Hari.
What: Mahajana Padayatra
Where: Ailamma Art Gallery
When: Until April 25 between 12 pm and 8 pm