A Mothers fruitless 33 year wait

PEDDAPALLI (Karimnagar): Mallojula Madhuramma, the 77-year-old mother of top Maoist leader Mallojula Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji, has been awaiting to see her son in person for the past 33 years.Though her son never visited his village and saw her, she comforted herself that he was alive somewhere and she would see him some day before her death.Now she is not sure whether she can have at least the last glimpse of her son who was killed in an encounter with the police in the forests of West Bengal on Thursday.Ever since she heard the news of Kishenji’s death, Madhuramma has remained grief-stricken.To whoever goes to console her, she makes only one request: “Please let me have the last glimpse of my son.” The family members said that Madhuramma was a brave woman and was never scared of knowing news reports on her son whenever it was played on the TV channels.“But when the news channels started flashing reports of police encircling Kishenji, she could not take it,” a family member said. According to the family members, the last time they saw Kishenji was at a wedding of a relative before he went underground in 1978. He had met his mother at Jagityal earlier in the same year while holding a meeting with the locals to revolt against the landlords.The family members alleged that the central and the West Bengal governments killed Koteswar Rao in a fake encounter and demanded that the West Bengal government hand over his body to them for proper cremation.“We request the government to make arrangements for bringing my brother’s body to Peddapalli as we want to cremate him properly as per our tradition.Hundreds of people are waiting to see him for the last time,” said Mallojula Anjaneyulu, Kishenji’s younger brother and retired employee of the cooperative department, here on Friday.Ever since the news of Koteswar Rao’s death broke out, people started pouring in at his brother’s house in Peddapalli to express their condolences to the family members.Many, including schoolmates and friends, recalled their association with him.“I spent 13 days in Karimnagar prison during the agitation for separate Telangana in 1971,” recalled Ramanand, an RMP.One of the family members recalled that about three months ago, two plainclothed cops had come from West-Bengal and met Madhuramma to enquire about her son. Before leaving, they reportedly touched her feet and said that she should feel proud for giving birth to two top Maoist leaders who were fighting for people.