A voice of sanity that will be missed.

WHILE the Maoists enter a new terrain of barbarism and brutality and the government plans a major offensive, it is a tragic coincidence that one of the most credible voices of sanity and scholarship that constantly reminded both sides that their ' line' is wrong, was suddenly silenced.

K. Balagopal, scholar, visionary and civil rights lawyer based in Hyderabad, died of a heart attack on Thursday.

No one can imagine that such a cardiac attack could visit him, because this stoic man lived frugally, neither drank nor smoked, was seriously disciplined and lived in a bare, clean home strewn with chunks of papers, reports and files pertaining to cases that he would be constantly fighting. He would travel in buses and sleep on railway platforms or in small rooms of friends and students while he traveled across the country to meticulously document human rights violations -- from Kashmir to Dantewada to Kashipur

in Orissa. And his reports and conclusions, under the Human Rights Forum, were trusted by all. This is because they were meticulously documented, painstakingly researched and measured on the paradigm of objectivity and truth, with absolute lack of prejudice, propaganda or partiality. It was because of this that the media, intelligentsia, lawyers and judges, and even politicians and the government in Andhra and Delhi took his word seriously.

The long pieces he wrote in the Economic and Political Weekly ( EPW ) against the mindless violence perpetrated by both the State and Maoists, were not only a rigorous critique with empirical evidence, they were also read by students and academics across the best universities in the world.

His essay written after YSR's victory in 2004, deconstructed the ' mafia- like' multi- million apparatus created by YSR, his father, and the Reddy landlord- warlord factions in Andhra Pradesh. It was till recently being widely circulated on the net.

And when he spoke, so softly that even microphones would fail to catch his voice, he was as lucid and cerebral as he was when he wrote those deeply sensitive and researched articles.

So much so that when Balagopal wrote a few pieces on post- modernism in the Telegu media some years ago, it sparked off a virtual debate in the intellectual corridors of Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam.

Balagopal and his comrade, eminent lawyer KG Kannabiran,

were the first to stand up against fake encounters by the police in the 1980s. They exposed these encounters, including the killing of civil rights activists by invisible ' death squads'. Even Balagopal was attacked and almost killed. They opposed Naxalite violence in equal measure, even while saving several of them from inevitable encounter deaths by filing habeas corpus petitions. The Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Group ( APCLC) became a public phenomenon with Balagopal at the helm, with massive popularity in civil society, universities and the legal community. Even the political class had no option but to take them seriously.

Predictably, Balagopal and his friends were thrown out of APCLC, because another group loyal to Maoist hardliners staged a coup.

Balagopal's relentless argument was a simple one: that this mindless violence is unacceptable, that human rights belong to everyone and not only to the Naxalites, that there is life and scholarship beyond indiscriminate killings.

He argued for a bigger debate on democracy and social justice, women's empowerment, rights of the poorest, cultural and political freedom, and the pursuit of a just and egalitarian society. In that sense, the injustice of it all cast a continuous spell of sadness on him.

In recent times, the Maoists, despite the grudging respect they had for him, hated him for his guts -- because he criticised their methods and mindset publicly.

And finally, the barbarism of a police officer's beheading might have broken his heart.

Copyright 2009 India Today Group. All Rights Reserved.

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company