INDIA: Legendary Bandit Kicks up Political Storm

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Aug 4 2000 (IPS) - A blindfolded negotiator being led deep into a dark forest to buy freedom for a top film star whose abduction sparks ethnic violence in south India even as the man behind it all, dreams of becoming an even bigger popular hero.

This could have been the typical plot of the average film made by India’s prolific cinema industry, except that this time it is real with both captor and his victim drawing equal sympathy from the national audience.

The weekend abduction of southern Indian cinema industry star Rajkumar by legendary bandit Veerappan who roams the forests of southern Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states, has sent two state governments into a tizzy.

Even as frantic state authorities try to establish contact with the man who is said to kill men and elephants with the same abandon, the federal government has rushed troops to handle violent popular tempers fired by the abduction.

According to eyewitness accounts, Veerappan, sporting his trade- mark, elongated, upturned whiskers, walked into the farmhouse of film icon Rajkumar in Karnataka and carried him off to his jungle hideout.

Since then, state-owned radio stations on the heavily forested Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border have been broadcasting appeals from Rajkumar’s wife, Parvthamma, to the captor to release her husband unharmed: “I appeal to you with love and affection and as your sister to send him home soon.”

India’s most wanted outlaw, Veerappan is accused of having killed 130 people, 40 of them police and security personnel, in a two decade-old career.

He is better known as the sandalwood smuggler and ivory poacher who is said to have slayed 2,000 elephants and felled several square kilometers of valuable sandalwood trees in the thickly forested, high-altitude mountains along the border of the two states.

He is also popularly regarded as a sort of folk hero. One reason Veerappan has eluded capture all these years, defying even a specially created elite security force, is the network of loyal informants he has created.

Karnataka state is taking no chances as Rajkumar is no ordinary film star. At the age of 73, he has built up a larger than life image through fine character roles on screen.

He also epitomises the breaking away of Kannada language cinema from the older Tamil cinema with its overarching influence over south India and Sri Lanka.

As news of his kidnapping spread, rioting and arson broke out in Bangalore city, the capital of Karnataka and now known across the world as the hub of India’s acknowledged IT (information technology) prowess.

Matters have not been helped by the fact that Veerappan is of Tamil origin and a member of the martial but backward Padayachi Gounder community which has shown loyalty to political parties that have championed the Tamil cause. The rioters in Bangalore have targeted shops owned by Tamils.

The abduction has added to a long list of grievances that Tamils and Kannadigas hold against each other starting with one of India’s biggest internal political disputes over the sharing of the water of the Cauvery river by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government has sent five companies of para-military troops to Karnataka. However, officials in New Delhi said the forces would not be used against Veerappan. They are more likely to help state police tame the ethnic violence in Bangalore.

The Karnataka government is said to be pinning its hopes on Tamil movie idol, Rajnikant who is said to command Veerappan’s respect. The bandit is said to admire the Tamil film star because he often plays Robin Hood roles.

Rajnikant has offered to go into the jungles and plead with Veerappan for the release of his friend and fellow actor.

However, the person who may actually secure freedom for Rajkumar is journalist R.R. Gopal who is the only outsider welcomed by Veerappan.

Gopal, who edits the Tamil language Nakkeeran was reported to have entered the jungles and established contact Thursday with the bandit’s men.

The journalist made headlines a few years ago when he became the first and only yet to interview Veerappan in his hideout. Gopal has written adulatory features on the bandit and three years ago successfully persuaded him to free his captives.

Gopal later recounted that he persuaded Veerappan to forego the 1.5 million U.S. dollar ransom he was demanding for freeing the eight forest guards, by telling him that it could spoil his public image and his dream of emerging from the jungle to become a politician.

Veerappan is not the first outlaw to aspire to public life. Many former bandits have made it big in India’s political arena. The most well known is Phoolan Devi, whose life inspired the famous film, ‘Bandit Queen’.

Once a dreaded woman bandit from a low caste Hindu community who was accused of having carried out a vendetta massacre of her upper caste rapist attackers, Devi was elected to Indian Parliament four years ago.