Famend Telangana people singer Gaddar passes away at 77
Balladeer Gaddar addressing a rally at NTR Stadium in Hyderabad on December 09, 2010.
| Photograph Credit score: MOHAMMED YOUSUF
Famend Telangana people singer and balladeer Gaddar, recognized for his revolutionary songs throughout the Nineteen Eighties and later throughout the Telangana statehood agitation, handed away in Hyderabad on Sunday, August 6, on account of ill-health. He was 77.
Born as Gummadi Vittal Rao in Toopran, Medak district, the famend people singer and poet went on to turn into well-liked as ‘Gaddar’. A former naxalite, Gaddar had led an underground life, together with within the forests. Subsequently, he joined the mainstream and voted for the primary time in his life within the Telangana Legislative Meeting polls in 2018.
A voice of the poor and oppressed throughout his lifetime, Gaddar was born in a poor Dalit household and grew up amid tough circumstances. Nevertheless, his father, who had met Babasaheb Ambedkar and got here beneath his affect, inspired him to review, as Gaddar had stated in an interview.
The fiery singer and poet joined an engineering course in Hyderabad as a pupil however was drawn in the direction of the revolutionary ideologies of the Dalit Panthers and the Naxalbari motion.
In the course of the Nineteen Eighties, he led an underground life, together with within the forests, working as a cultural activist, and toured locations like Abujhmarh in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
In later years, Gaddar returned to the mainstream. He was normally seen in his trademark dhoti, purple scarf, and picket employees, however in recent times he switched to trousers and shirts, adopting a clean-shaven look.
He penned songs for movies, and so they turned sensations. One such hit was his track ‘Bandenaka bandi katti’ within the 1979 movie ‘Maa Bhoomi’.
The poet-singer performed an important position within the Telangana agitation earlier than its success in 2014. His track ‘Podustunna Poddu Meeda Nadustunna Kaalama Poru Telanganama’ was massively profitable and galvanized the folks in the direction of the statehood agitation.
Usually described in Telugu as ‘praja yuddha nouka’ (warship of individuals’s agitations), he survived an assassination try within the Nineteen Nineties, however a bullet remained lodged in his spinal wire, which he lived with till the tip.
It was solely within the 2018 Telangana Legislative Meeting polls that Gaddar voted for the primary time in his life.
He was final seen in a Congress public assembly addressed by Rahul Gandhi at Khammam in Telangana on July 2, the place he hugged and kissed the Gandhi scion.
Not too long ago, he floated his personal occasion, the ‘Gaddar Praja Celebration’, however quickly fell in poor health and couldn’t take it ahead.
Gaddar, who had a bullet caught in his spinal wire from the Nineteen Nineties, had a decade in the past seen his track ‘Podustunna Poddu Meeda Nadustunna Kaalama Poru Telanganama’ turn into the anthem of the Telangana achievement motion.
Condolences
Telangana Chief Minister Okay Chandrasekhar Rao ordered that Gaddar’s funeral be held on August 7 with full state honours as a mark of respect for the companies to the general public made by the departed singer.
Prime leaders like former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, along with Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, her Haryana counterpart Bandaru Dattatreya, Telangana Chief Minister Okay Chandrasekhar Rao, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, in addition to TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, State BJP chief G Kishan Reddy, and several other different leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, expressed grief at Gaddar’s demise. Telugu movie personalities, together with mega-star Chiranjeevi, additionally condoled his loss of life. Chiranjeevi stated the vacuum brought on by the demise of Gaddar in folks’s literature and other people’s struggles would by no means be crammed.
Venkaiah Naidu stated folks like Gaddar, who devoted his total life for the sake of individuals and people songs, are hardly ever seen in society. Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Saddened to listen to in regards to the demise of Shri Gummadi Vittal Rao, Telangana’s iconic poet, balladeer, and fiery activist. His love for the folks of Telangana drove him to combat tirelessly for the marginalised. Might his legacy proceed to encourage us all,” he stated. Gaddar had attended a Congress public assembly addressed by Rahul Gandhi at Khammam in Telangana on July 2. Kharge stated Gaddar would stay a hope for the aspirations of the weakest sections.
(With inputs from PTI)
