Live by the sword, and die by it

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A faction leader, prime accused in his arch rival's murder & out on conditional bail pays a visit to his lawyer's office. With his usual trusted driver on leave for the day, he chooses to travel with his close aides M & B. While M takes the wheel, B sits behind the co-driver, in this case, our protagonist "Suri".

Minutes later, B steps out of the car and walks away. M looks on, dazed at the increasing pool of blood near the gear lever... blood oozing from the bullet wounds on the body of his "Anna".

Dramatic?? Filmy?? But this isn't a 70mm screenplay; it is an incident that happened right on the crowded streets of Hyderabad city.

For those who follow politics in India, they'd know Andhra Pradesh as one of the most politically-charged states of the country. And political power coups have been a way of life for certain districts like the Anantapur district of South AP.

According to folklore, police officials and few citizens who've managed to live through it, the "once upon a time" started around 1976-77 when Suri's father, an MLA, was killed by the head of a rival group. A tornado of Tit for Tat killings was unleashed, and it swept away families and heads from both groups. At the end of a 2-decade long battle survived 2 warlords. M. Suri & Paritala Ravi.

Power is almost always chased aggressively by politics, and soon enough Ravi rose to power in a regional political party, the TDP, even acquiring a ministerial berth. But that did not mean digression from the family feud. In 1997, a bomb blast allegedly masterminded by Suri to avenge his family deaths missed its target, killing 26 people but not Paritala Ravi. Suri was arrested & sentenced but it failed to reign in the terror in Anantapur district. In 2005, while Suri was still in jail, Paritala Ravi was assassinated in TDP's Anantapur district office, illustrating the power, betrayal and vengeance rife in this part of the country.

This time charged with murder, Suri was released on conditional bail in Dec 2009 and shot dead at point blank, allegedly by his own aide, on 3rd Jan in 2011. An end of a faction-war era?

Senior journalists caution I'd be kidding myself if I thought so. The not so hidden flame of political-warlord nexus is far from being extinguished. The red embers are still hot.

While my cameraman and I stood outside the hospital, looking at visuals of the blood soaked body of Suri on a stretcher, getting updates from the policemen and the doctors, a strange feeling enveloped me - not sadness or sympathy but I think that of Pity. Pity the inevitable circumstances that make these individuals who they are, pity the families who are left behind, pity the unending quest for power where blood and life are not worth a penny.

I believe Suri wanted to re-start his political career, secure his son's future - pretty much what Ravi wanted as well before he was murdered. Pity life doesn't give everyone a second chance.

My friends who've just been transferred to the IT city, called a while later, to ask if it's safe to head out. They wanted to move on, just as the rest of the city.

PS: Ram Gopal Varma, based his recent 2-part film "Rakhta Charithra" on this true story. A box-office success in Andhra Pradesh. A few questions stoked by the incident though:

Did the film re-ignite passions among the warring factions? Does this end beckon a part 3 of the film? Will the symbiosis of politics, power and violence ever end? Is injustice an acceptable excuse for picking the axe?