Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) founder president and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has demanded that social reformer, writer and folk poet of Maharashtra Anna Bhau Sathe be conferred with Bharat Ratna and requested the Maharashtra Government to send a proposal to the Centre and Telangana Government too would address a letter to the Prime Minister with the same plea.
Speaking at Wategaon near Kolhapur in Maharashtra, the birth place of Anna Bhau Sathe, at the latter’s 103rd birth anniversary, Mr. Rao said the writings of Anna Bhau were not just for people of Maharashtra but for people of India and the world. He requested the Maharashtra Government to get all writings of Anna Bhau translated into all Indian languages and English so that everybody could know his ideology.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said Matang community, to which Anna Bhau belonged, was one of the oldest communities of India and recollected how the great poet Kalidasa wrote about Matang community, the descendants of Matanga Maharishi of ancient India. He said Anna Bhau was known as ‘Lokshayar’ (people’s poet), the title given to very rare few, and recognising his contribution to the field of people’s literature his bust was installed in the All Russia Library in Moscow.
However, he said, there was no proper respect given to Matang community and Anna Bhau, who is also known as a pioneer of dalit literature, although the latter was known as Indian Maxim Gorky. He stated that a grandson of Anna Bhau, Sachin Sathe, was working with him to bring a change in Maharashtra politics.
Mr. Rao said the BRS would work for the interests of Matang community in Maharashtra whenever they get an opportunity. Mother of Sachin Sathe, Savitribai, Maharashtra unit BRS leaders Shankaranna Dhondge, Manikrao Kadam, B.G. Deshmukh, Bhagirath Bhalke, K. Vamshidhar Rao and others participated in the event.
Earlier in the day, on his arrival at Kolhapur, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao offered prayers at Mahalaxmi Ambabi temple and later went to the residence of another BRS leader Raghunath Dada Patil at Islapur. He was accompanied by MLA A. Jeevan Reddy, Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman S. Ravinder Singh, and Chief Advisor Somesh Kumar.
