Hyderabad:
Chapala Erriah, the only CPML member in the Andhra State Assembly who jumped to the ruling Cong. I, is a standing example of the deep caste prejudices inside the Naxalites who claim to be the most revolutionary parties in the country. He is an uneducated tribal leader belonging to the Chandra Pullareddy group of Naxalites – one of the powerful ML groups in A.P. They have strong tribal base in the Bhadrachalam forest on the bank of Godavari, Khammam district. Pullareddy, over 60, has a price of Rs. 1 lakh on his head. His student front is PDSU (Progressive Democratic Students Union).
All the M-L groups were shocked when Erriah crossed over to the Cong-I. Naturally everyone is interested in knowing what made a Naxalite join Cong-I. What are the facts? And to probe this we went to his constituency.
The tribals we met said Erriah was often ill-treated by the M-L leaders and students. He had no freedom to do anything. He was treated as a slave. He was not allowed to go any where without their permission even though he was an MLA. He was not even allowed to sleep in his room at Hyderabad MLA hostel as it was always crowded with youths and students and Naxalite leaders. He was asked to sleep in the verandah. He was not allowed to send his salary to his family. Even boys of 16 tried to dictate him as they felt that being an uneducated, that too a tribal, he did not know Marxism. But as long as he was in the ML party they did not openly say that he was ignorant of Marxism. But when he left, they said he knew nothing of Marxism.
Other ML groups did not protest such insinuations. The CPI and CPM enjoyed such allegations. This is the position of our Left parties and their caste prejudices. How can Marxism come to India with such Left leaders heading our Left movement?
