Dr Banda Prakash, Deputy Chairman of the Telangana Legislative Council, speaks to The Pioneer about participating in the 1969 Telangana agitation, working initially with the Congress and later with the Bharat Rashtra Samiti, serving as a member of the Rajya Sabha and his current role. In a conversation with Naveena Ghanate, he takes stock of his contribution to the Mudiraju Community, sports bodies; being declared ‘dead’ twice, and his association with RSU as a founding member.
MLC to MP
After I left the Congress, (then TRS president) K Chandrasekhar Rao called me. He asked me to work for the party as general secretary. I did not even have membership of the party when I was nominated as general secretary. There was a lot of political criticism in Warangal. I was a Rajya Sabha member from 2018-2021. I enjoyed the most being MP. I asked 308 questions in 10 sessions with 88% attendance. I was a member of several
parliamentary committees, MSME Board Member and on the panel on Ancient Momuments and Archaelogical Sites. Surprisingly, I was made in-charge for Mahabubnagar seat. We got 7 seats, including Kodangal. My name came many times to be MP. Y S Rajashekar Reddy also proposed me for MLC and other opportunities, but they never translated into reality. Now I am MLC and deputy chairman of the council. I have written 30 articles and four books that are based on research. I wanted to retire by 60, but my activity has increased.
Boycotted SSC exam for 1969 agitation
I hail from Warangal. I have five siblings – 4 brothers and one elder sister. My father Satyanarayana had a business of electrical contracts. He was the only son, had a car and a cycle motor in the 1940s itself. My mother Shakuntala is from Hyderabad. Her father was a
railway foreman. I studied in the Warangal Railways Gate School for primary education and later in A V V Kalasala for SSC. Our class was the first SSC batch; before that it was HSC and PUC. At primary level, I was good at studies, but during middle and higher levels, I concentrated less on studies. The Telangana agitation was raging in 1969 when I was in SSC. We did not want to write the examination, but people compelled us to. I skipped the examination as a mark of protest for statehood.
President of Junior Colleges Assn
In the 1970s, I joined Intermediate in A V V College. I was into student politics and became secretary of the college. In 1972, the agitation was continuing in Telangana, but then Andhra agitation also flared up. I was then doing degree in C K M College. I skipped writing the exams as a mark of protest. At that time, (former combined AP chief minister) Channa Reddy won 10 seats and merged his outfit (Telangana Praja Samithi) with the Congress. There were reactions among the younger generation. I was the president of Junior Colleges Association in 1972. We were a violent batch in Telangana during the agitation. A lot of violence was there in Telangana. ‘Andhra Go Back’ was the war cry. In our area, there were a lot of settlers and all the hotels belonged to them. We used to keep our classmates safe and attack their hotels.
Founding member of RSU
In 1972, I shifted to left-wing politics. I was inclined towards Charu Mazumdar’s ideology. The Radical Students Union (RSU) was a front organization of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). I was a founding member and instrumental in setting up RSU. I was into RSU because we differed with Pulla Reddy politics. They wanted to support armed struggle and economic struggles also. But for us ‘annihilation of the enemy’ was the only slogan. In my RSU days, I took part in armed struggle. We were Emergency victims as well. I left my education, boycotted examinations and remained untraceable for a very long period. Police used to come looking for me. Except my mother, everyone went to the police station as the cops, in their efforts to get me, used to take them away. My elder brother left Warangal and came to Hyderabad because of this police harassment. I was not traceable after Emergency.
Reports of my ‘death’ twice
I was fully into party work and remained underground. We were with people but in no way connected with family or relatives. I used to be in Warangal rural and urban areas, Suryapet. I was building the organization full time. The focus was on revolution even if it meant death. I had a reward on my head. In the news, I saw twice that I had been
declared dead. Towards the end of 1977, I surfaced. After the revocation of Emergency, there was enquiry commission, and all cases were written off. In the party also, we got difference of opinion. After the Nagpur conference, there were a lot of arrests. Reformistic things were added to revolutionary things. I differed with it. But some cases were left off. In many cases, my name was included. There was a big plan to kill Pitambhar in Tapala case. In the firing, he did not die. Police added Kondapalli Sitaramaiah, Chiranjeevi, and me in that case. I never killed anyone. At that age, it was all emotional factors, plus Telangana agitation.
Spent a month in jail
After coming out, I spent one month in Warangal jail. I took advice from friends. I was the son of the soil and I wanted to be in Warangal. I did not want to surrender in front of the police. So, I went to court and attended hearings of the simple case. This case was from my college days, accusing me of planning to kill some people, including education ministers, and for giving slogans and putting up posters. I went to Court on the day, even though the case was to be postponed. The judge asked me to apply for bail, but the police said he could get it. The Court rejected the police requests. I was in jail for one month and applied for bail in all cases. Wherever there was incident in Warangal, they would arrest me. I got so used to it that if there was any incident, I used to pack my bags and go. In the police station, I would console someone who would have been bought like me.
Mudiraju leaders and sportsperson
I was president of the Telangana Mudiraju Sabha. I have been working for the community since 1980. The Puttuswamy report wasn’t correct and so I demanded that Mudiraju be moved to BC-A from BC-D. Ambedkar also worked for the caste. The ultimate thing is annihilation of caste. We need to empower castes to remove them. Poverty levels in the caste are the reason I had to take it up. They were treated in utter poverty and treated very badly. So, I used work for economic empowerment and enhanced awareness of the Mudiraju community. I am a sportsperson. I worked for the Telangana Khokho Association and was its president in erstwhile AP. For every other sport, the name used to be Hyderabad Association, but only Khokho had ‘Telangana’ president in Andhra Pradesh. I was also Judo association president. I was honorary president of 52 labour unions.
Councillor during college
I completed my BA in 1979-81 from Osmania University. I wanted to go to JNU to study Economics. I ended up doing my MA in Public Administration from Kakatiya University. I used to participate in academic activities. Before I went to the final semester, after 12 years, local bodies elections came. I did not want to contest but was encouraging young ones to contest. In my ward, was city Congress president whom I used to call Thatha – Gajula Janardhan. He was close to my mother – but ideologically I was against him. Last minute I took a decision to contest. I got the highest majority in that election. I had 24 councillors’ support and we had to decide which side we have to go. In Congress, a second group came to us. Considering financial constraints, we supported the Congress. The chairman was from a different group of Congress, and I was the municipal vice chairman. Despite contesting and winning, the police used to come to check on my movement. That’s when I took the decision to join Congress from 1981 to 2016 was with the party.
Sailing with the Congress
In Congress, it was liberal. We could argue, nobody was there to control us. When Telangana agitation was going on, I may have been the only Congress person to go to every tent in my district. Irrespective of the party’s stand, Telangana was my priority. In 1998, I took a representation prepared by Prof Jayashankar, along with three friends, and met Sonia Gandhi. Just before leaving, I raised the issue of Telangana. She came to see us off but changed her mind and called us back to discuss for 30 minutes about Telangana. She said we had positive concerns about Telangana. In 2004, 2009 and 2014, I was a member of the Congress election manifesto committee. In 2014, I was part of the Congress disciplinary committee. Irrespective of my presence in Congress, I always stood for statehood.
Quick bytes
Fav food: Anything in non-veg
Fav color: Blue
Bad habit: Talking a lot
Religious: I don’t believe in God
Hobbies: Reading
Sports: Good at carroms and
ball badminton.
Movies: Not regularly, only when my daughter forces
Quote: Show your hand towards son, stupid will see the finger pointing towards sun
Sad moment: When my mother passed away
Married in 1982
In 1982, after I had won as municipal vice chairman, I married Banda Anitha Praskash. She is my uncle’s daughter. She is a university gold medalist in MA. I used to take care of my
father’s business. My wife’s family was into politics. Her father Suryanarayana would ask me not to go towards left. I have only a daughter Parnika. She was blessed with a son recently. My son-in-law Krishna is a doctor.
