Death of the Best and Brightest

Not since Tipu Sultan has Karnataka seen such a heroic warrior
like Comrade Saketh Rajan.
If Tipu Sultan was the Tiger of Mysore then Comrade Saketh Rajan
is nothing less than the Lion-heart of Mysore.

The Khaki hyena's and vulture politicians
who scavenge in Karnataka,remember this-

Today Saketh Rajan may be dead,
but one day he will return,
with millions.

Economic and Political Weekly July 22, 2006



Death of Best and Brightest

By Sagar

Comrade Saketh Rajan

I can still remember his smiling face, full of life, concern
and a deep sincerity that anyone who met him could sense
immediately. Saket Rajan - journalist, historian and social activist
rolled into one - was not someone you could easily forget anyway,
given his charismatic personality or his mission in life as a
communist revolutionary.

My memories of him are from 22 years ago when I was beginning my
career in journalism in Bangalore. Saket, whom I knew through
mutual friends, was just beginning to organise activities of the People's
War Group or PWG (now CPI Maoist) in Karnataka at that time.

I respected his choice but personally was not very convinced that
the PWG's almost exclusive emphasis on waging an armed struggle
against the Indian state was the best way to operate in
a diverse country that despite its various problems did offer space
for other more mass-based political activities. We remained friends
but parted ways - with me continuing to be a journalist
and Saket going underground, becoming a Central Committee member
of the PWG and mostly untraceable by people outside his immediate
party circuit.

Karnataka, where Saket operated, was among the few
places where the Maoists emphasised the development of a variety
of mass fronts over the idea of "armed struggle at any cost".

Saket was of course too creative a person to blindly copy and
apply the "Andhra model" of the PWG in his home state.
These mass fronts have taken up a very wide range of issues from
nuclear power plants to the march of saffron communalism.

In February last year when the Karnataka police brutally murdered
Saket in an alleged "encounter" in Chikmagalur, memories of my
meetings and discussions with him came flooding back. His untimely
and needless death was like a knife turning through my
heart - as indeed it must have been for most of his friends everywhere.

Here was the snuffing out of one more brilliant mind, an extremely
sensitive soul and yet another product of India's "Naxalite" movement
that has motivated thousands of young Indians to give
up everything, including their lives, fighting for radical social and
political change in the country.

Shame on a society that allows the killing of its best and brightest
in such a wanton manner.


Related posts on Karnataka's Immortal Son of the Soil
- Comrade Saketh Rajan below

We remember Comrade Saketh Rajan thus we make him Immortal

How Comrade Saketh Rajan was killed in Treachery

I am proud of you my Son ! - Interview with Comrade Saketh Rajan's mother

Comrade Saketh Rajan - Author of the path breaking
book - "Making History"

Comrade Saketh Rajan's dedication to his martyred wife Comrade Rajeshwari