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Revolutionary writer Varavara Rao is unwell in, hallucinating, says his family
Varavara Rao is facing trial in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case of January 1, 2018, and also on charges of being part of a plot hatched by Maoists to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The health of prominent revolutionary poet and Maoist ideologue P Varavara Rao, who has been lodged in Mumbai’s Taloja Jail, has deteriorated, his family said on Sunday.
Rao is facing trial in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case of January 1, 2018, and also on charges of being part of a plot hatched by Maoists to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He was arrested in by Pune Police first in August 2018 and after he was released on bail following a court order, he was rearrested in November 2018. He was first lodged in Yeravada Jail in Pune and later moved to the Mumbai prison.
Rao’s wife Hemalatha and daughters Sahaja, Anala and Pavana said while speaking to reporters they were worried about his deteriorating health, as was evident from the phone call they had received on Saturday.
“He appeared to be in a state of delirium and hallucination, as he was talking about the funeral of his father and mother, the events that happened seven decades and four decades ago respectively,” Hemalatha said.
“His co-prisoner took the phone from him and informed us that he is not able to walk, go to the toilet and brush his teeth on his own. We were also told that he is always hallucinating that we, family members, were waiting at the jail gate to receive him as he was getting released,” she said.
Rao’s co-prisoner also told the family that he needed immediate medical care for not only physical but also neurological issues.
“The confusion, loss of memory and incoherence are the results of electrolyte imbalance and fall of Sodium and Potassium levels leading to brain damage,” Hemalatha said.
She pointed out that her husband’s health has not been good for over six weeks now, ever since he was shifted in an unconscious state to the JJ Hospital from Taloja Jail on May 28.
“Even as he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail three days later, there has been no improvement in his health. The earlier two calls on June 24 and July 2 were also worrying with his weak and muffled voice, incoherent speech and abruptly jumping into Hindi, which was quite worrying,” she said.
The family said they were not bothered about issues like whether the case against the revolutionary writer was fabricated, that he had to spend 22 months in jail as an undertrial with the process turned into punishment and his bail petitions getting rejected at least five times now.
“His life is the topmost concern for us right now. Our present demand is to save his life. We demand the government to shift him to a better hospital or allow us to provide required medical care,” the family said in a statement.
“We want to remind the government that it has no right to deny the right to life of any person, much less an undertrial prisoner,” they added.
In April, around 40 prominent writers wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting Rao’s release in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Several members of Parliament, cutting across various political parties, also wrote to Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray with a request to provide medical care to Rao and to shift him to a hospital.
