Profile of Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, General Secretary, CPI

Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy born on 25^th March 1942 has been an ardent social worker through Communist Party of India (CPI) right from his student days.  His father S. Venkatrami Reddy was a freedom fighter and was an ardent fighter in Telangana armed struggle.

ACADEMICS

He completed his SSLC now equivalent to 11^th class in 1958 from Municipal High School, Kurnool, A.P., BA Special in History from Osmania College - Kurnool in 1964 and LLB from Osmania University Law College in Hyderabad in 1967. He had joined LLM in 1968 but could not complete it due to his activities as a student leader.

STUDENT & YOUTH MOVEMENTS

In 1957 while in school he was in thick of agitations for blackboards, chalks and other basic requirements at the school that became a movement in all schools at Kurnool.

In 1960 he became Kurnool All India Student Federation (AISF) town secretary and later was given the responsibility of AISF Kurnool district secretary. In 1962 he was made the secretary of the Sri Venkateswara University strike committee. The committee led an unprecedented 62 days strike that led to the acceptance of various student demands. He was elected as the president of college students union at Kurnool. In 1965 during his Bachelors in Law at Osmania University he was elected General Secretary of the college in the students union elections. Later he was entrusted the responsibility of AISF Andhra Pradesh (AP) State Secretary.

In 1966 became the General Secretary of AISF National Council and had to shift to Delhi. In 1969 was again reelected as the General Secretary of AISF. In 1970  became the President of AISF.  In 1972  was   elected as the president of All India Youth Federation (AIYF). Represented Indian youth at various international forums especially International Union of Students (IUS), World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and World Youth Festival.

POLITICAL ACTIVITY:

In 1971 during the CPI IX Congress at Cochin he became a member of the National Council of Communist Party of India (CPI)

 In 1974 he moved back to AP to become an active member in the AP State Council of CPI. From 1974 to 1984 he was member of the Andhra Pradesh State Executive of CPI. During this period he has fulfilled the responsibilities of Vice President & then as Secretary of AP State Council of Bharathiya Khet Mazdoor Union (BKMU), Party Incharge of Mahaboob Nagar District and as Member of the state party secretariat. As a BKMU leader he is well known for the struggles initiated to distribute land and also restore the self-esteem of landless agriculture labour.

In 1985 & 90 Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy contested unsuccessfully in Kollapur Assembly Segment. In the meantime he became the Asst. Secretary of Andhra Pradesh State Council of CPI. In 1994 he contested unsuccessfully in faction violent hit Dhone assembly segment against the sitting Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy but his election campaign was successful in bringing a whiff of democracy in the faction region and emboldened downtrodden people to come out and fight for their rights.

In 1998 he got elected to the 12^th Lok Sabha from Nalgonda Parliamentary Constituency. The same year he became the Secretary of the State Council of CPI in AP. He also became member of the CPI National Executive and later member of the Central Secretariat of the CPI.

In 2000 he played an important role in a massive struggle by all left parties in Andhra Pradesh against Power Price Hike. The movement was built up from grass root levels and in over a few months brought the entire state government to a standstill. He faced lathi charge and police firing during the agitation in which three young men where shot dead. He was hospitalized along with many other agitators who where injured. After foisting false murder case, he was arrested and jailed along with 22 others during the movement. The government later withdrew the false cases and the power prices were not hiked again for over a decade.

In 2004 he was again elected to Parliament to become member of the 14^th Lok Sabha during the tenure of which he became the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labor.

In 2007 in the XX Congress of the CPI that was held in Hyderabad he was made the Deputy General Secretary of the CPI.

AGITATIONS

In 1966 when Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy was secretary of AISF AP State Council he was arrested several times during many agitations. During the agitation demanding setting up of steel plant in Vishakapatnam he was arrested in 1967 and was put in Kakinada jail and Tirupati jail. The same year he was jailed in Calcutta for 8 days when protesting against the dismissal of Left Front government by Congress. He was jailed again in Lucknow for more than 10 days when leading an agitation demanding the restoration of Student Union. He is a well known leader for leading various struggles on behalf of students and youth. He also led many successful nationwide agitations by AISF & AIYF on many national issues like 18 years voting right, Unemployment relief, etc. As part of numerous Jathas he toured the nation to drum up awareness and public support on various issues.

CHAIRMANSHIP OF PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE

As chairman of standing committee he made many far-reaching recommendations. For the first time a standing committee recommendations attracted the attention of the mass media. His committee recommendation of Social Security for unorganized workers has been partially implemented. He had also recommended establishment of banking services and social security for Handloom Workers. His recommendation for gratuity for private school teachers was also implemented.

As a parliamentarian he had tabled private members bill for making Right to work, Right to life, Right to nutritious food for school going children and Right to Healthcare. The private members bill presented by Com S.Sudhakar Reddy attracted attention of the house and many fellow parliamentarians participated resulting in it becoming the private members bill with maximum members and time on discussion. He has highlighted the plight of people of Nalgonda and the harm fluoride contaminated water was doing to the people and responsible for the Governments attention to provide safe drinking water to the people of Nalgonda. He was one of the first to alert the government by writing a letter to Prime Minister and brought attention of the Parliament to 2G scam way before it was exposed by CAG. His letter to the Prime Minister on 2G scam was acknowledged in the affidavit filed by the Prime Minister in the Supreme Court. He raises the issue of Black Money in Swiss Banks, which latter became a major national issue.

Inspite of being an active parliamentarian, Chairman of standing committee on labour and member of national secretariat and deputy general secretary, he had been associated with working class movements at grass root levels. He was twice elected as the president of HMT workers, Patron of All India mint workers federation, and had been guiding force for the Airport Employees and other unions.

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE

Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy has travelled to numerous countries to participate in conferences, seminars and workshops. He attended international student & youth conferences in Soviet Union, GDR, Mongolia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and more. He was the fraternal delegate in the conferences of Communist Party of USA, Refoundation Communist Party of Italy, Communist party of Japan and Communist Party of Vietnam. He also visited – China, UK, France, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh on various other occasions. Recently he has participated in the international conference of the world Communist parties held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

As a parliamentarian he had addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

INTERESTS

S. Sudhakar Reddy is a voracious reader. He was also a columnist. He was the editor of many publications. He was also the Chairman of Visalaandhra Vignyana Samithi which runs a daily newspaper and operates the largest publishing house in Telugu. From his student days he has authored booklets on regional, national & international issues. He was the editor of youth magazine YUVAJANA.