Many young men who have been part of ABVP and full of nationalist spirit lost their lives during ideological battles. One of them was Sama Jaganmohan Reddy. He was brave like a soldier and fought valiantly to protect the honour of the national flag against opponents of foreign ideological leanings.
Jaganmohan Reddy was born into an ordinary middle-class family in Warangal district. That was the time when he was studying law in Kakatiya University and preparing to appear for the civil services examination. In the 1980s decade students on campuses were afraid of the RSU and Maoist violence and shied away from public movements. It is in this background that Jaganmohan became the president of ABVP, KU, and worked for many causes along with his fellow students. He discussed his myriad ideas about nation, patriotism and nationalism with his friends and conceptualised and conducted many programmes to reflect the nationalist ideology.
On January 26, 1980, the then Vice Chancellor of the University hoisted the national flag in the presence of teaching and non-teaching staff and students. Suddenly, even as everyone watched, members of the Radical Students Union (RSU) rushed to the flag post, brought the tricolour down and hoisted a black flag, shouting derogatory slogans that Independence and the Constitution were fake. They tried to burn the national flag. And Jaganmohan, who burst forth like a modern Bhagat Singh, rushed out from the crowd and rebelled against the deplorable actions of the RSU. He drove away the RSU hooligans with the help of some other students and restored the tricolour to its due place. Later on, the government ordered an enquiry into the desecration of the flag. The situation at the university was so bad that when Justice Sriramulu of the Enquiry Commission came to the University, students were afraid to come forward and testify against the RSU. Jaganmohan, however, fearlessly revealed the names of the main perpetrators of the crime and turned chief witness.
This irked the RSU students. The RSU and PWG threatened Jaganmohan with dire consequences many times when he went to the court to testify against the RSU. But he did not pay any attention to them. On April 29, 1982, when Jaganmohan was coming back from the court in a rickshaw and reached the congested Hanumakonda Head Post Office area, a group of Naxalites, who were waiting in hiding, pounced on him and stabbed Jagan indiscriminately. And Jaganmohan paid with his life for just protecting the honour of the national flag and the venerable Constitution, drafted by Dr Ambedkar. We should all respect the supreme sacrifice and noble legacy of that great martyr Sama Jaganmohan, fight together to curb those forces that are against this nation and rededicate ourselves to enhancing the honour of our Nation.
This article was first published on Apr 29, 2019.
