Pics by Dayananda Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (PS)
 
Mangalore, May 14: Actor and progressive thinker G K Govind Rao said that the newly commissioned ‘Defense Committee’ will hold a protest in front of the CM’s house in Bangalore on Monday May 28 urging for the release of Mangalore University journalism student Vittal, who has been labeled a Naxal.
 
He spoke to reporters after visiting student Vittal Malekudiya and his father Lingappa who have been housed in the district jail since two months now.

 
Rao told Vittal not to give up hopes and insisted that the jailors take extra care of the student who hails from Manila Kuthlur in Belthangady and was pursuing his journalism course at the varsity. He also told Vittal about the support of the Defense committee and other progressive thinkers for him.

On the same occasion, Rao said that though he himself is a Leftist thinker, he is not a Naxal sympathizer and said that the phenomenon of treating those who raise their voice against the system as Naxals is not a good one. Vittal, while replying to Rao, said that he has been given good food and treated well by the jailor. He added that his books were locked up by the police in the hostel itself, and those should be given to him for his reading purpose.
 
Later, speaking to reporters outside the jail, Mavalli Shankar, chief convenor of Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Ambedkarvada), who accompanied Rao during the visit, said that the government has not been making any efforts to provide any fundamental facilities in tribal areas and instead of improving schools there, they are closed down and focus is given to privatizing them. He rued that this was not the functioning of a civil government.
 
Shankar added that at the scheduled protest in Bangalore on May 28, CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat will make it to the venue and on Sunday May 20, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat will visit Vittal in jail. He also said that High Court advocate Ravikumar Varma will represent Vittal on his behalf. He added that a legal fight will be held for Vittal’s release. DYFI’s Munir Katipalla was also present.