CPI (M) seeks medical attention for Telugu poet Varavara Rao

The CPI (M) has urged the government to provide necessary attention in a better hospital to the revolutionary Telugu poet Varavara Rao because of his failing health.

"The Uddhav Thackeray-government should not fall prey to the Machiavellian machinations of the Centre that it would be the Maharashtra Government who would be put in the dock, in case something unfortunate and untoward happens. We fervently hope good sense will prevail and the Maharashtra government will take firm and proper action in this respect," the CPI (M) Maharashtra State Committee said in a press statement.

The first step must be to expeditiously shift Varavara Rao to a well-equipped hospital in Mumbai, the party said.

The statement comes hours after Varavara Rao's family members - wife P Hemalatha, and daughters P Sahaja, P Anala, P Pavana - issued a public statement from Hyderabad, to provide necessary medical attention to him.

"The physical condition of octogenarian poet and public intellectual Varavara Rao has become precarious in Taloja Central Prison, Navi Mumbai, where he is languishing for 22 months without a trial under false and fabricated charges in the Bhima Koregaon case, thanks to the political vendetta of the central government," the CPI (M) said.

His health is so deteriorated that he cannot walk or even brush his teeth without assistance. More worryingly, he is hallucinating with the progressive collapse of his mental faculties. With the levels of potassium and sodium further going down, it could damage his brain permanently, the statement notes.

"With the news that the Covid-19 has spread to various prisons, Varavara Rao, who is extremely vulnerable to catch this epidemic, can face a life-threatening situation," it said.

It is evident that the NIA is being misused for political vendetta. It is just to show Maharashtra Chief Minister ‘his place’ that the NIA has been told to take over this case, the Left party said.

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"We demand that looking at the dangerous spread of the Covid-19, all these public intellectuals put in prisons under fabricated charges be released forthwith," it requested.