Interview of Gade Nagge Reddy @ G Innaiah  Reddy

Gade Nagge Reddy @ G. Innaiah Reddy is a socio-political activist, who has been active since his student days. During his schooling, he was taught by teachers like Kondapalli Seetharaniah, the founder of People’s War Group (PWG). G. Reddy was very active in Telangana movement since 1994 and also wrote a book about the movement called ‘Betrayed Telangana’. He played key role in the Telangana movement. Later, in 2006, he started working for Orphans and established an orphanage home called ‘Maa Illu’. In December 2022, he came forward and took the initiative for saving the democracy under the banner of  ‘Bharat Bachao’ in which he is trying to bring people from different sections, including social and Dalit leaders on a single platform to protect secularism and democracy in the country.  The first phase of the camping is ‘Bharat Bachao National Conference, which will be held on March 11-12, 2023 at HKS Surjeet Bhawan, near ITO Metro Station, New Delhi.

The interview of G. Reddy regarding ‘Bharat Bachao Conference’ and his upcoming plans.

Question: How did you come into Social Activism?

G.Reddy– I come from Christian family and after completing my 5th standard, I went to school in Warangal. The atmosphere of the school was political because the prominent Naxalite leaders like Kondapalli Seetharaniah and KG Sacchamurti (co-founder, PWG), both worked in school for some times as a Hindi, Social Science teachers and their ideology inspired me. After 10th, I joined Chandrakanta College in Warangal, where the great writer Pendyala Varavara Rao (Bhima Koregaon activist) who is in jail, was our Telugu teacher and vice principle of the college that time. I alongwith some of my friends joined Radical Students’ Union (RSU) in 1979. During 1979, the students faced more repression compared to present times. I also went to jail and while in jail, I was elected as a President of student union. After that, I became as a whole timer in some part of Telangana and Andhra as a student organizer.’

Question: what is Bharat Bachao and why you need to take this initiative?

G. Reddy: In 2019, the second phase of Modi government results confused and raised doubts regrading the credibility of EVMs. People did not vote for BJP but it got 300+ seats. It seems that the democratic system is like Election Commission, Judiciary and other institutions are being influenced by the political dispension and lost the democratic values of our constitution. In view of the deteriorating situation, in 2019, I alongwith small group of social activists started discussions and planned to start a movement to save the democracy but the world got caught up in COVID pandemic and then we started online sessions to promote our movement. After relief from COVID, we started organizing some group discussions in different parts of Talangana, Andhra Pradesh and few other state. The agenda of discussions was to save democracy and constitution. The discussion were mainly held with intellectuals, professors, human rights activist, journalist, advocates of the country.

It is very evident that the Modi government is being governed by the RSS and is trying to impose its ideology. During the deep study, we found that RSS doesn’t believe in the constitution and wants to create Hindu Rashtra which will be governed by Manusmriti. We also studied Manusmriti and Views of B R Ambedkar and other prominent leaders about the Manusmriti, who opined that it is dangerous for the country. People of RSS/BJP are clandestinely imposing the ideology of Manu but don’t chant about it overtly. It is clear that they want to create a society in the order of Brahminical hierarchy and want to implement the Gujarat modal all over the India. Their politics is only based on hatred. With all these problems, we came to a conclusion that the constitution, the federalism and democratic values are in acute danger and we have to raise voice against it. 

We have started contacting organisations, parties, individuals who are fighting against the RSS/BJP ideology independently and tried to bring them on single platform and few of them agreed to unite to save the democracy. Presently, we have started the movement titled ‘Bharat Bachao’ which clearly mentions against the BJP-RSS’s fascist agenda and their plan to establish Hindu Rashtra. In order to unite people of similar thoughts, we are visiting various states and meeting different people. On March 11-12, Bharat Bachao National Conference will be organised and final draft for the future course of action will be decided and a nation-wide network will be formed.

Question: After the national conference what are your plans?

G. Reddy: After the national conference, we will plan for state level conferences in all the states in the country. The state level fronts of Bharat Bachao will be constituted. Our plan is to start with Universities, colleges and urban areas and after that we will target semi urban and rural areas. We will bring different sections of the society in order to reach the masses and organise them to fight against the fascist forces. We will appeal the masses to defeat BJP in the loksabha election in 2024. 

Question: As you said that Bharat Bachao is a initiative to save democracy and secularism, recently we have seen Congress led Bharat jodo yatra with similar agenda so why don’t you join them and how is your campaign different from Congress?

G. Reddy: The strategy of the Congress to fight against the RSS-BJP is not clear and is only inspired by their own politics. The Congress has no clear strategy to fight Manuwaad and when Congress comes into power, it leaves its fight against the Manuwaad. The ideology of Congress is not to fight against the Fascism but only against BJP and RSS. Though, the agenda of Bharat Jodo Yatra is to unite people of the country, but after coming to power, if Congress fails to curb Fascism in the country, the Bharat Bachao movement will continue which makes us different from other forces that are fighting against RSS-BJP. Our aim is not to criticize Bharat Jodo Yatra as its goal is to unite people of India and we support Congresss’  vision of this Yatra.

Question: Are you willing to give support to any political party in 2024 Lok Sabha elections?

G. Reddy: Yes, we are trying to unite the opposition against BJP-RSS ideology. We are making efforts to bring all the opposition on one platform and to field a single united candidate of all opposition against BJP in the upcoming Parliament elections on all parliamentary seats. Only 30-32% people are supporting BJP but it is able to win because the opposition is divided. If the opposition will be united, it would be able to manage an easy win with around 60% votes. I know it is not an easy task but history has taught us that during emergency, a newly formed Janta party had become victorious and crushed Congress at all India level. If the political parties understands that the situation is becoming very dangerous not only for communist, Ambedkarites or democrats but for everybody and So much have happened with so many people and we cannot say that this would not happen with us.