Balagopal is a champion of human rights

It was T S Eliot who began his ‘Waste Land’ with ‘April is the cruellest month.’ But for Telugu people it is October in the month of which we lost two great personalities - ‘S R Sankaran, a people’s IAS Officer’ and Dr. K Balagopal, a noted Human Rights activist.

Both of them dedicated their lives for the poorest of the poor. Six years have passed since Dr. Balagopal’s death. He was the champion of human rights. He looked at everything from humanistic approach.

He spearheaded the rights movement for over two decades. He struggled throughout his life for the protection of rights of the Dalits and the Adivasis.

Dr. Kandalla Balagopal (1952 – 2009) was a man of principles and practice. Born in Karnataka and educated in Andhra Sri Balagopal joined the Kakatiya University, Warangal as a lecturer in Mathematics after completing his M.Sc from REC, Warangal and Ph.D from KU, Warangal.

He gave up his post-doctoral research in Delhi and came back to Warangal. At Kakatiya University Warangal he was immensely influenced by revolutionary ideas. Gradually he began to study historical, economical and political scenario of the country.

The study of Marxism changed his way of life. From being a brilliant mathematician he turned a full-time rights activist. As a member and the General Secretary of the Civil Liberties Committee for over fifteen years he put the theory into practice.

He was arrested many a time, kidnapped and beaten up. He was left in an unconscious state thinking he was dead at Kothagudem in khammam district. All these actions made him a strong and staunch supporter of human rights.

Dr Balagopal resigned as a lecturer and practised as a lawyer in Hyderabad. He took up the cases of the deprived and the downtrodden. He gave them a new hope of life.

He condemned the encounters and called them government-sponsored murders or extrajudicial killings. Simultaneously he could not endorse the retaliations perpetrated by the left extremists. At this point Dr Balagopal differed with APCLC.

Broken away from the CLC he founded Human Rights Forum. He refined and redefined the rights. Whenever and wherever there was an encounter death or some illegal action, Dr Balagopal would appear there the next day.

Tsundur, Karamchedu, Jagtial, Kothagudem, Adilabad – whatever be the place, Balagopal immediately flew over there, interacted with the victims to do justice to them.

Dr Balagopal expanded his activities. He condemned the state violence as much as he opposed the “red violence.” He visited the areas undergoing social turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and what not.

He was a member of many fact-finding committees. He was deeply aggrieved by the Gujarat riots. He was opposed to the Special Economic Zones. He used to travel thousands of miles to know the truth.

He served as a member of the Expert Group on Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas, set up by Planning Commission of India in 2008.

As a mathematician, an activist, a lawyer, a literary critic, a prolific writer his brilliance was multi-faceted. His intelligence was par excellence and intellect incomparable. His writings on various issues reveal his ‘perspective’ and multi-dimensional study.

His articles in the Economic and Political Weekly unveiled his reflections on the various problems the country was facing. He authored many books on the contemporary issues with concrete solutions.

Scholars say that he would have achieved the Nobel Prize had he continued as a mathematician. He gave a new dimension to the civil rights. He strived hard for the protection of civil rights and struggled hard to do justice to the deserved sections of the society.

Emulating his ways and enlivening his goals and aspirations, albeit a tough task, will be a befitting tribute to the noted activist. His contribution to the rights movement would be remembered for ever and it gave a spur and acted as an impetus to the activists in other states.

His absence is conspicuous especially for the poor. Dr Balagopal’s simple, ideal and practical life is exemplary for all. In toto we can say he was an extreme rightist and an extreme leftist. He was fifty seven when he breathed his last.

By:Sriramakavacham S K