---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Kannabiran KG <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:49 AM Subject: [humanrights-movement:2042] BALAGOPAL To: [email protected]
-- K.G. KANNABIRAN National President, PUCLDear friends, Balagopal was very close to me My close association started in 1983 when he was elected to the APCLC as its General Secretary and we were together until 1993 when after around fifteen years I insisted that I should be permitted to step down Our meetings used to be almost daily during the ten year period .In 1994 I was elected President of PUCL and we were operating in the same sphere and we used to meet often and exchange notes. After his entry into APCLC we continued to fight human rights violations with more determination. He was possessed of a fine mind that commanded his pen. He assisted me, to commence with in the Warrangal Enquiry Commission against police excesses. By the time he had acquired a law degree from Bangalore and Babiah managed his attendance. It was in Warrangal that I bought his first black coat that would enable him to sit beside me and assist me. I later moved for his enrolment as advocate and he helped me in the ‘ Bangalore Conspiracy case agaist Naxalites and that ended in a total acquital. When Deen Dhar Anjuman was banned under the Unlawful Activities Act 1967 we appeared before the tribunal constituted under the ACT We had the sittings at Hyderabad Bangalore and Delhi. And the matter is pending in the High Court He was mauled and beaten by the police quite a few times and these never demoralized him. I distinctly remember when the First Chairman Ranganath Misra along with Justice Fathima Beevi held their sitting in Hyderabad , they visited Warrangal for one day. When the Commission was holding the sittings in one room in the other in the presence of people present there Balagopal who was present was pummeled in the other room and the press reported the fact and Chairman was hesitant of taking cognizance of the fact. In the evening I talked over the phone about the incident and he was not willing to proceed against the police. He was going to Nalgonda the next day and I told him that I will be at Nalgonda the next day and when I was asked to sit next to the Members there was protest and I went down from the elevated platform I was surrounded and fisted in the presence of the Chair person and the other member . He saw this but was helpless and left in a huff Any way in the full dressed enquiry in the guest house at Hyderabad on four encounters they held that three encounters were homicides required investigation and prosecution and in one incident they held we could not prove. The State Government never complied with the REPORT.We have been challebging the encounter killings at various levels . In 1997 we secured a judgment which recognized that these killings were homicides and needs examination Later a full bench reversed this decision with some wishy washy reasoning and so it was referred to a larger bench of five judges In the larger Bench we ared and placed our views along with other colleagues and they returned a unanimous verdict that the need to be investigated after the crime is reported and that is pending in the Supreme Court.. In all these matters we were aooearing together. He was the only poor peoples lawyer and acquired a considerable file What is important is that poor people also could engage competent lawyers, perhaps as competent and perhaps much more committed than the lawyers for the affluent. This tradition receives a set back by his sudden death. We had initiated the trend of looking at law and the Constitution quite radically and Balagopal carried this trend forward and argued in a way that would embarass the sensitive among the judges . This jurisprudence of insurgence we brought on to the Agenda received a set back on his untimely death . I have grown old and weary and he died an untimely death. He built up a credibility which assures respect from judges. He was a person of tremendous physical and moral courage. He remained untouched by stage encounters because of his moral stature and the fearlessness that it brings in its train. I weep for Balagopal --he is dead. A long time back, when I was busy with the Commission of Enquiry chaired by Vash ishta Bhargava in 1978-79 Comrade Sundarayya used to visit me in the evenings. I used to discuss with him politics of the communist movement. One day I told him that the days are nearing for him to draw a balance sheet of his life and how did he propose to do that . He was old and after talking about the split in the movement he told me that several brilliant young people were shot and tears welling in his eyes continued “and for the people to produce even one such leader it might even take a hundred yearThat would be the scale of set backs”. That statement comes to my mind . To find another like Balagopal it might take another ten decades. He was a good friend though he is a quarter century younger. A brilliant Candle extinguished before its time. kgk Plot 300, Street 6, E. Marredpalli Secunderabad 500 026, AP Phone: 040-27730632 -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
