Amid chants of “Combat in opposition to UAPA” and “Your sacrifices gained’t be in useless”, the physique of Dr G N Saibaba, the previous Delhi College professor who died on Saturday after spending a decade in jail for alleged Maoist hyperlinks earlier than being launched earlier this yr, was handed over to Gandhi Medical School in Hyderabad on Monday.
“I’m ready for the day to listen to the information of the collapse of our beloved nation’s prisons” is a unfastened translation of traces from a poem of his that was printed on a poster, which additionally featured a photograph of a beaming Saibaba, that was hooked up to the hearse that carried his physique.
Tons of gathered to pay tribute on the medical faculty campus, the place the physique was donated for medical analysis as per his needs. His eyes had already been donated to the LVP Eye Institute the day earlier than.
“It was all the time his want (to donate the physique). He was an atheist and by no means believed in any funerary rites. He would say that at a sure level in society, these rites had a spot – to construct a group. However now, an important factor for an individual is to contribute to society. His thought was all the time to donate his physique,” mentioned Saibaba’s daughter, Manjeera, standing beside her mom Vasantha.
Earlier within the day, after his household obtained the physique from the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, the place he died, a big group of supporters gathered on the Gun Park memorial within the metropolis to pay tribute to Saibaba. From there, the physique was taken to the Moula Ali space on the outskirts of the town, the place it was saved at his brother’s residence for folks to pay their respects.
In response to the household of Saibaba, who was launched from jail in March 2024, it was clear from the final seven months that he spent with them that his organs had deteriorated through the decade he spent in jail.
Saibaba just lately underwent gallbladder elimination surgical procedure, and died on account of issues that arose in its aftermath.
Saibaba’s brother Dr Gokarakonda Ramadevudu linked his dying to his time in jail. “The new summers and chilly winters that Dr Saibaba spent within the infamous ‘anda cell’ of Nagpur central prisons and the dearth of correct medical consideration to him led to his premature demise,” Ramadevudu mentioned.
He recalled his brother as somebody who confronted nice challenges from childhood, after contracting polio, and overcame them to excel academically. “Unable to afford a wheelchair, he would crawl on the bottom, utilizing his slippers for help, to get to high school. When he bought to class 5, his academics have been shocked as a result of Saibaba already knew the teachings that have been being taught. He was the topper in each grade and the district topper at school 10. He additionally topped BA English in Andhra College,” mentioned Ramadevudu.
Saibaba graduated with an MA in English from the College of Hyderabad, bought an MPhil from the English and Overseas Languages College, after which accomplished his PhD from Delhi College, the place he later joined as a school member.
“He was a voracious reader and formed his character and character by literature. He was surrounded by a big circle of mates from numerous social actions,” mentioned Ramadevudu, who teaches at a non-public engineering faculty.
Hem Mishra, one of many 5 others accused within the case together with Saibaba, mentioned each time he felt weak, it was Saibaba who impressed him to remain sturdy.
He spent a decade with Saibaba in Maharashtra prisons, and arrived in Hyderabad on Monday to pay his final respects. “We might take turns serving to Saibaba together with his day by day wants. He couldn’t do even easy duties like getting water or going to the lavatory on his personal. Subsequently, he required fixed help from two individuals who would offer him with treatment, meals, and private care. Regardless of such challenges, the jail couldn’t break his willpower,” Mishra mentioned.
“He would say that someday we might stroll out of jail,” Mishra recalled, including, “As a result of we did nothing improper. We raised our voices in opposition to injustice, for the rights of the folks, for the rights of Adivasis, Dalits and all of the oppressed on this nation. We have been, and are, preventing for a simply trigger.”
N Venugopal, a good friend of the household and editor of Veekshanam journal, mentioned: “He was incarcerated for 10 years in a false case, and through that trial itself one tribal man who was a co-accused, Pandu Narote, died. After three years of Narote’s dying, he was acquitted. So, his was a dying sentence earlier than acquittal, and Saibaba’s is a dying sentence after acquittal.”
Venugopal mentioned that it was Saibaba’s mind that the state was frightened about. “His mind was good. So that’s harmful to the state… That is precisely what was mentioned about Antonio Gramsci in Italy in 1926. Fascist Mussolini’s prosecutor mentioned the Italian state needed this mind to cease functioning for 20 years. The identical factor occurred within the case of Saibaba,” Venugopal mentioned.
