Seethakka- The phenomenal lady

The unique story of Seethakka, aka Danasari Anasuya is an incredible narrative in Indian politics that might be fantasized as if it is a fictional chronicle. She resembles a sublime protagonist crafted by the imagination of a great artist. The whole 52 years of her life journey paints a remarkable picture of how a gun-toting Naxalite transformed into an educated lawmaker, from violence to public service.

Seethakka, born into a tribal community called Gotti Koya has faced the harsh reality of marginalisation and violation of law and justice against the deprived sections which made her take up the cause. It was in her early teens ages that she got persuaded by the armed Naxal movement and got along with the Janashakthi Naxal group from where she started to fight against the social apartheid, economic exploitation, severe poverty and violation of land rights which was prevalent since 1960.

“The place where I hailed from was all about Naxalite ideology, and schools and colleges always had discussions on this. So, that’s how I got attracted to it”, she said.

Due to joining the ranks of a Naxalite group, she had to sit for her class 10 exam in jail after being arrested for the first time in the late 1980s. After the gun-toting eleven years in the woods with a motive of violence, Seethakka finally grew disillusioned. In a state amnesty scheme announced in 1997, she felt persuaded to surrender to the police. She believed in the power of education and targeted uplifting her tribal community by pursuing law even though her situations were not conducive to those goals since by now she had a nine-year-old child and her husband was still a Naxalite. She then secured a degree in law while working for an NGO for her livelihood.

“My fellow advocates encouraged me to get into politics. With better funds and power, I could do better service that’s what they believed and that’s how I got into politics,” she stated.

Her political career began with TDP in 2004 and she contested for the Mulugu seat in the assembly election in which she couldn’t succeed. After 5 years in 2009, Seethakka proved her adeptness gracefully when TDP gave her the same seat to contest and won. Later in the 2014 election, she finished third and then was welcomed to Congress in 2017. In the following year, she again got elected as MLA for Mulugu.

During the Covid lockdown, people recognised Seethakka and her public service. The 2020 lockdown caused serious supply disruptions, especially in the tribal communities in the remote areas of Mulugu district. She delivered the daily essentials to these downtrodden families by trekking across the hills, woods and waters with heavy bags on her own shoulders. Her travelling pictures and videos got nationwide attention through the internet.

She wrote in one of her Twitter updates that her travelling reminded her of the old days but now she carries rice and vegetables instead of guns.

“People knew my work during lockdown after I started posting snippets of it, but I have been doing this all my life and will continue to do so,” she added.

Even in the midst of all these political happenings, she did not leave her education behind. She completed a PhD in political science in 2022 from Osmania University on the thesis “Social exclusion and deprivation of migrant tribals of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state - A case study of Gotti Koya tribes in Warangal and Khammam districts”.

All her struggles and determined efforts have now been elegantly rewarded in the recent Assembly election that enabled her to win the Mulugu seat by over 33,000 votes against the BRS candidate and Mulugu Zilla Praja Paishad chairperson, Bade Nagajyothi, the daughter of the late Maoist leader Bade Nageshwara Rao and ex-Maoist Rajeshwari.

The loudest cheer of the L B Stadium in Hyderabad from among the ministers sworn in was reserved for Seethakka when she was about to take oath in the presence of the new Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and the 11 other ministers projected her at the time as an ideal leader elected by the innocent people in a democratic nation.

Seethakka is doubtlessly the embodiment of the power of transformation and an incredible human in Indian politics who labelled the impact of determined efforts towards personal growth and social betterment.