Katakam Sudarshan was the first top leader to start culture of Maoist interviews

Katakam Sudarshan’s one and only lengthy interview soon after assuming charge as secretary of the newly created North Telangana Special Zone Committee took place in the then naxal-affected Manala forest in September 1996.

Sixty-nine-year-old top CPI (Maoist) leader and Central Committee and politburo member Katakam Sudarshan alias Anand was perhaps one of the visible faces of the then People’s War Group, who started the culture of giving interviews to media in the forests.

His one and only lengthy interview soon after assuming charge as secretary of the newly created North Telangana Special Zone Committee took place in the then naxal-affected Manala forest in September 1996.

This correspondent had just joined Nizamabad district headquarters as The Hindu’s representative in September 1996 and was among the six select journalists invited by Katakam Sudarshan for what turned out to be his first and last interview.

Those were the days when naxal activity was at its peak in North Telangana and not a day passed by without an incident. Whether it was naxal violence or the retaliatory act by the police, blasts, damage to government properties, execution of people branded as informers and killing of naxalites in encounters was the order of the day.

The group of journalists met at the Nizamabad bus stand, boarded a bus to Bheemgal with the task that all should reach Bheemnagar, a tribal hamlet in the forest area of Manala by evening. A rickety Commander jeep is what the journalists had to take from Bheemgal to reach Bheemnagar during the hour-long back-breaking journey.

Almost 25 years after that interview, the journalists recalled the fond memory of that chance encounter with the naxal leader, who went on to hold the topmost position in the Maoist party later.

The arrival of the strangers in the hamlet itself created a sense of unease among the residents. “They were all tight-lipped when we asked if a cup of tea was available. Residents simply stepped back and avoided any contact with the group,” recalled Pinnam Lingam, senior Telugu journalist.