(Gurrala Gopal)
In July 1976, I got admission to the Bachelor’s degree at SVU College of Engineering. A boy of 17, fired with aspirations and ideals for pursuing my future I entered the college starry-eyed. Everything, however, looked hazy on the campus and it took a lot of struggle before I got acquainted with the local climate and academic environment.
Then, a friend, C.V. Seshaiah, an ME (power systems ) scholar took interest in the rural lad and oriented me towards rational thinking and rudimentary concepts of Marxism.
In 1977 I came in contact with RSU ( Radical Students Union) when I chanced upon to meet a friend veeranjaneyulu@ Ravi who visited our college as a fulltime worker of RSU.
This helped me quench my thirst for knowledge on social evils like caste discrimination, untouchability, ill-treatment of women, etc., in addition to the philosophical and political inquiries vis a vis-à-vis God.
This was the time when the change of guard took place at the center-fall of the Congress regime and entry of the Janata government, post-Emergency, that shook the Indian society with its notorious forced family planning operations and denial of democratic rights to the citizens in general and political parties in particular.
Prof Seshaiah then was doing a master’s in Law from SVU. RSU brought us together and we were started working together on many issues and political freedom being the most important one, as the dark days of Emergency were still afresh across the nation.
One day police arrested me and Seshaiah when we were distributing pamphlets during a public meeting being addressed by the then President of India Neelam Sanjeeva reddy at the University Stadium. The pamphlet was meant to bring various problems being faced by the farmers and public to notice of the President.
prof Seshaih was a strong believer in the New Democratic Revolution the guiding tenet of RSU, with a keen eye for analysis of contemporary polity and economy.
He used to deliver lectures extempore on issues that were being debated by the youth yearning for change and progress of the country and society.
I made it a point to meet him on daily basis, in the evenings, along with my friend Madar Valli to discuss various socio-political issues that were tormenting us.
Seshaiah, an erudite Marxist scholar with a thorough understanding of the contemporary issues, had always been receptive to us and used to be ever obliged to dispel the doubts and enrich us with the knowledge of Marxism and Leninism.
Given his ideological background and natural affability, Seshaiah had been extremely good at organizational work and in popularising the RSU amongst the university students as well as other colleges in Tirupathi such as Agriculture College, Veterinary college, Oriental College, and Poly-technic college.
The favorite rendezvous of RSU was the Deluxe Hotel, near the old Municipal office, Tirupathi leading to Gandhi Bazar, where hours would roll on with discussions and Q&A sessions, over the torrent of cups of tea and cigarettes.
Noted Marxist ideologue Tripuraneni Madhusuhan Rao, advocate Sivareddy and P.C. Narasimha Reddy, a linguistic professor from SVU used to attend the sessions as per their convenience in guiding the deliberations to a logical end.
Seshaiah used to hog the limelight among the students in raking up the discussion on a serious note and in a would-be intellectual style.
Seshaiah used to herald rhyme and rhythm at the street-corner meetings and the group meetings, in the late evenings that used to take place regularly at the University Central Library for the benefit of those general students who confronted with existential issues on and off the campus.
He was extraordinarily simple in his language and always avoids jargon. He focuses on the analysis of the issue and formulation of action-oriented suggestions for redressal of issues.
It is still afresh in my memory that in 1980 a National conference was organized by the department of economics in which the Radical Students Union had distributed pamphlets to register our protest to then Indira Gandhi Government’s proposed credit package from IMF.
The pamphlet, drafted by Seshaiah himself, attracted the attention of the conference and it was the talk of the town.
Similarly, he used to support us in bringing out such leaflets almost on all contemporary issues concerning the student community and the society at large.
When Polytechnic students were on a statewide agitation for redressal of their long-pending problems, Tirupathi was in the forefront in leading the agitation with the support of students from all educational institutions, under the guidance of Seshaiah.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, RSU used to undertake Village Campaigns during holidays in order to help students understand the life and plight in rural areas. I fondly remember these trips to villages as they gave me first-hand exposure to the levels of poverty, ill-health, and lack of infrastructure and basic amenities, which are normally given a short-shrift by many students.
I could recall the tenacious abilities of Seshaiah in comprehending the local problems related to land and other issues to be addressed on a priority basis. His convincing ability backed by facts and figures in a humble way made him the darling of all those who were participating in these campaigns normally organized in the night for farm laborers and another village folk. These meetings, meant to create political awareness among the rural poor, were always laced with cultural programs of JNM ( Jana Natya Mandali ).
(Prof Seshaiah, a well known civil rights activist passed away on October 10, 2020, in a Hyderabad Hospital due to COVID-19)
(Gurrala Gopal was a friend and contemporary of Prof. Seshaih from SVU, Tirupati)