ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an interview with Vara Vara Rao, a communist, well-known Maoist sympathizer, renowned poet, literary critic and purveyor of Andhra Pradesh's potent Maoist movement. The interview was conducted by Ranjit Bhushan in September 2007 at New Delhi. Vara Vara Rao has been a poet for over 40 years and an orator and a teacher who taught Telugu literature to graduate and undergraduate students. He was arrested again on 26 June 1975, on the eve of the Emergency, and detained under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). He was among the last to be released, much after the Emergency had been lifted and only when the new Janata Party government repealed MISA itself. In the interview, Rao talks about how difficult is it to negotiate with governments. The practical difficulties in getting varying ideologists across the table for peaceful negotiations represent the biggest challenge to the Indian state.