Clarion India
HYDERABAD – Gummadi Vittal Rao, who is known as Gaddar, passed away on Sunday while undergoing treatment at the Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad.
“He was suffering from severe heart disease and got admitted on July 20th, 2023. He underwent a bypass surgery on August 3rd, 2023, and recovered from it. However, he is a past patient with lung and urinary problems, which along with his advanced age aggravated and led to his passing away,” an official statement from Apollo Hospitals said.
Born in 1949, he was a poet, revolutionary balladeer, activist, and former Naxalite.
Gaddar was a member of the Naxalite movement until 2010 when he joined the Telangana statehood movement.
He went underground in the 1980s and joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), and founded the Jana Natya Mandali, the Communist Party’s cultural wing.
He was shot by unknown perpetrators in 1997, and though he survived, a bullet remained lodged in his spinal cord.
Congress MLA Seethakka expressed her sadness over Gaddar’s demise.
“It is very sad to know that Revolutionary People’s singer, Telangana fighter Gaddar anna is no more.. My support to their family members in this loss,” she tweeted.
Telangana BSP chief R S Praveen Kumar expressed sadness over Gaddar’s death. He also urged the state government to conduct final rites with state honours.
