A mere seven months after his acquittal in a case in which he was alleged to have links with Maoists, former Delhi University professor and activist Dr Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba's passed away on Saturday, October 12. Saibaba, who had become a symbol of state repression, breathed his last at Hyderabad’s Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) after reportedly suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 58. During his ten-year incarceration, Saibaba had complained of the harrowing ill-treatment and torture meted out by jail authorities. Though he had permanent polio-paralysis, jail authorities had even refused to hand over his medication, Saibaba had told the media after his acquittal.
Saibaba, also an English professor at Delhi University’s Ram Lal Anand College, was acquitted by the Bombay High Court along with five others earlier in March. He was arrested and booked under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for alleged association with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). However, the State failed to prove the charges against him.
A passionate voice of the Left, the former Delhi University professor’s death marks a deep void in the human rights landscape at a time when several political prisoners still remain jailed under the UAPA.
Dr Saibaba, who hailed from Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s Konaseema district, was an ardent supporter of Adivasi rights, a fierce critic of state repression, and had opposed the arrests of Stan Swamy and several other political activists. He was also a supporter of the Telangana statehood movement. Since his release Saibaba has mentioned in several speeches and interviews of his that “it was a miracle that he made it out alive.” Describing it as his Agni pariksha (trial by fire), he said that his health was majorly impacted during his time in solitary confinement.
Saibaba, who is also a poet, was part of several political campaigns: the most prominent among them being his critique of Operation Greenhunt, an all out paramilitary offensive by the Congress Union government in 2009 which violated the rights and lives of Adivasis living in the ‘red corridor’ (select districts covering various states from Andhra Pradesh to West Bengal).
He also has a collection of his prison poems and letters published by Speaking Tiger titled Why do you fear my way so much? Saibaba is survived by his wife Vasantha Kumari and 26-year-old daughter Manjeera.