Kodela's suicide: Bottom line of revenge politics?

Death is part of life. It is only natural that authors and poets write about death. The word death brings different feelings to minds. Most are scared of the thought.

Some embrace death with the thought of meeting his maker. The feeling to not exist, while the rest of the world goes on with their lives is overwhelming. To write about death, one has to write about life.

So, what does Kodela Sivaprasada Rao's life tell us? The struggles and the pains that he underwent during his childhood and the tragedy of losing his sisters to chicken pox early in life which had an impact on him, which in turn, egged him on to become a doctor... it was quite a struggle.

Having lived defiantly and swimming against the tide, Kodela became a hero for some and villain to others. For the Telugu Desam Party, Kodela means much more. He was its hero in Guntur having braved the faction feuds of Palnadu region for long.

That earned him enemies too. But finally, it is not the enemies that consumed him but their politics. Dirty politics, one should say, took his life. Whether or not Kodela was wrong in the eyes of law is a different matter.

Law should take its course and will take its course. But, nowadays, we see the nasty practice of meddling with the law by the powers that be. If Kodela had done something illegal like the alleged furniture theft or extortion, those complaints should have been investigated properly.

But, with the change of government in Andhra Pradesh, But, with the change of government in Andhra Pradesh, there have been allegations of vindictive politics taking place. Then, there are rivals too who have encouraged people to file cases against Kodela's family.

Apart from the cases and inquiries, a systematic campaign was launched against Kodela in a dubious fashion. He was in fact the easiest target because of certain questionable omissions and commissions.

The ruling party knew that defence for Kodela would not come by from the former ruling party easily as it is facing hard times. All these led to Kodela's sad ending.

The fact that Kodela himself lamented a lot about the humiliation and harassment proves how systematically he was tormented. Entire Palnadu region is a witness to a turmoil with houses being burnt and people being driven out of their villages.

This may be a case of retaliation. It could be that the victims of today are perpetrators of crimes in the past. Agreed. But, never did any ruling party resort to such harassment of political rivals. This is no politics in fact.

The Chief Minister has done well as far as keeping his promises included in the manifesto and one would always appreciate it. But he should ensure that no vindictive politics take place in the State.

This is the second incident where the TDP lost an important leader soon after losing power. In 2004, when the TDP got a drubbing from the Congress, it lost Paritala Ravindra within six months of losing power.

Now, within three months, the party lost another important leader. Hope there will be no more Kodelas.