The Hindu : Karnataka News : `A brilliant student and a good human being'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

`A brilliant student and a good human being'

By Sharath S. Srivatsa

MYSORE, FEB. 7. The faculty at Maharaja's College here remember him as a brilliant student, who was annoyed with the imposition of Emergency, and his close friends are reminded of his generosity and humane nature; but all are perplexed over his decision to stay away from the mainstream.

For, Saketh Rajan, State secretary of the CPI (Maoist), who was killed in an encounter in Chikmagalur district on Sunday, was a popular student in the college between 1977 and 1980.

He participated in literary activities and held strong views on Marxism. Because of oratorial skills he rose to become the propaganda and publicity in-charge of the People's War in Andhra Pradesh.

Known as Saki among friends, he stood first in his batch at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, bagging four gold medals.

Saketh Rajan discontinued his engineering course and joined Maharaja's College to study Journalism, English literature and Public Administration. He went underground during the Emergency.

Saketh Rajan's father, S.K. Sounderajan, was a Major in the Indian Army.

His aged mother, Rajalakshmi Sounderajan lives alone in an apartment at Jayalakshmipuram here. While his literary interests saw the revival of Mysore University's Debating Club of which he was the vice-president, his social concerns were displayed when the first movement to save the Kukkarahalli Lake was launched to highlight the danger posed by hyacinth during the early 1980s.

A close friend of Saketh Rajan and Reader, Department of English at Mysore University's Postgraduate Centre in Mandya, Lingaraj Gandhi, told The Hindu that Saketh Rajan was an intelligent student who made classes lively.

He also generously helped poor students. "He was my best friend and a great human being. He was also a guide to me till 1985. After he involved himself with the naxalite movement, about which I had strong reservations, we lost contact. He did not attend his brother, Anand's funeral in 1989 and also his father's funeral in 1991," Dr. Gandhi said.

Pride of college

Remembering Saketh Rajan as a brilliant and committed student, the Head of the Department of Journalism at Maharaja's College, R.N. Padmanabha, said that on several occasions he (Saketh Rajan) had showed his displeasure on the imposition of Emergency and violation of human rights. He brought laurels to the college by winning in several inter-collegiate debate competitions.

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