UPA paid dearly for ignoring Sudhakar Reddy's scam alert

Monday 30 April 2018 08:47 AM IST

by Jayachandran Elankath

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Sudhakar Reddy – the veteran politician whose letter shook UPA

Sudhakar Reddy has contested elections to the Parliament and was a member of the 12th and 14th Lok Sabhas.

Kollam: S Sudhakar Reddy, who has been re-elected as the CPI general secretary, has a long and eventful track record of leading landmark struggles. Several student-youth movements have benefited immensely by the leadership of Sudhakar Reddy, who carries the legacy of the Veera Telangana agitation.

He was elected as the general secretary during the 21st party congress held in Patna in 2012. Prior to that, Sudhakar Reddy acted as the deputy general secretary since the 20th party congress held in Hyderabad. Sudhakar Reddy is among the tallest political leaders from Andhra Pradesh.

He has rich experience in leading AISF and AIYF. He hails from the legendary area of Kunjpod in Paramura which is part of Mahbubnagar district where several intense struggles were carried out by migrant labourers. His father was Suravaram Venkita Rama Reddy, a freedom fighter who took part in the Telangana agitation. The eldest child of his parents, Sudhakar Reddy was born on March 24, 1942. His school and college education was at the neighbouring Kurnool district. Rama Reddy’s elder brother Pratap Reddy also was a freedom fighter. Pratap Reddy was a member of the Andhra Mahasabha.

Sudhakar Reddy also followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle, joining struggles related to students’ issues. He became active in AISF while at Venkateswara University and led several students’ stirs. After completing BA History, Sudhakar Reddy joined Osmania University for legal studies. During this time, he was elected as the college union general secretary.

Sudhakar Reddy was in the forefront of the strike demanding a steel plant at Vishakapatnam.

After successfully completing his LLM, Sudhakar Reddy shifted his activities to Delhi. He was elected as AISF general secretary on two occasions. Subsequently, he became the president of AIYF. C K Chandrappan was the general secretary of the organization. Sudhakar Reddy led AISF and AIYF when the nation witnessed several landmark students’ and youth agitations.

In 1968, Sudhakar Reddy became a member of the CPI national council. During the mid-1970s, Sudhakar Reddy returned to his home state from Delhi and became active in the political arena there. Soon, he was elected as the CPI state assistant secretary and subsequently state secretary.

On being made BKMU state secretary, Sudhakar Reddy led several agitations. He was jailed several times.

Sudhakar Reddy has contested elections to the Parliament and was a member of the 12th and 14th Lok Sabhas. He came to the national limelight for writing to the then prime minister along with Gurudas Dasgupta for exercising caution on black money and 2G spectrum allocation. He wrote to the government again raising the same matters in 2008, but there was no response.

Sudhakar Reddy’s letter pointed out that public relations person Niira Radia was working for two competing corporates. He also gave details about what was wrong regarding the 2G deals. The nation paid a big price for the lethargy shown by the government in the matter. When Sudhakar Reddy’s warnings were ignored, India saw a massive scam amounting to Rs 1.76 lakh crores taking place in the 2G allocations.

Sudhakar Reddy’s letter was discussed widely all around the country and led to serious repercussions. The UPA government suffered severe damage in the subsequent developments.

Sudhakar Reddy’s wife is B V Vijayalakshmy, who is a national council member of the CPI. She is also the national secretary of AITUC working women’s council and all India co-convener of Anganwadi workers federation. They have two children, Nikhil and Kapil, both of whom are settled.

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