Impasse frustrates aged parents of hostage

By M.Madan Mohan

DHARWAD, SEPT. 20. They are too distraught to talk. This had been the prominent mood in the house of Nagappa Koppad of Maradagi village near here one of the three hostages taken along with the thespian Mr. Rajkumar by Veerappan.

Only three days ago their drooping spirits were buoyed up by the happy tiding brought by Mr. H.K.Patil, Minister for Major and Medium Irrigation. Inordinate delay in visiting them notwithstanding, Mr. Patil had called on the family to tell them that the hostages were likely to be released four or five days after September 19 when the case was expected to come up before the Supreme Court.

But with the Supreme Court adjourning the case to October 11, the hopes of early release had been shattered for the family. They had dark foreboding last evening when the message filtered through radio and the newspapers that reached the village this morning confirmed it.

"The world has simply collapsed around us," a sobbing Rudrappa, father of Nagappa Koppad, said when presspersons called on him this morning. Mallavva, his wife, was looking blankly at the sky. "Can I see the face of my son," she asked repeatedly as tears welled up in her eyes. Silence was more eloquent than the speech at that moment for all those who had gathered in the house.

"We do not know what to do. Whom to approach. Meeting Mr. Vajpayee or the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, is useless. Who will give us relief?," asked Mr. Shivappa and the hunch-backed Mr. Mahantesh, both brothers of Mr. Nagappa.

Mr. Nagappa has been the mainstay of the family consisting of parents, four sons all of whom belong to small agriculture family depending on four acres of land. Fifteen years ago, Nagappa, an ardent fan of Mr. Rajkumar, went to Bangalore and managed became almost the member of the Rajkumar family. It was this cementing bond which proved to be the cause of his present plight. For, he was with Mr. Rajkumar in Gajanur and was picked up by Veerappan.

Mr. Nagappa, who is married and stays in Bangalore, had helped his father to perform the marriage of his two sisters. Another of his brother followed him to Bangalore and is employed by the Vajreshwari Combines, owned by the Rajkumar family.

The family has undergone a harrowing experience after the abduction of the filmstar. First, the parents did not know that their son was one of the hostages. The word about it came through newspapers and the radio. The details were slow to trickle in.

What hurt the family most was the manner in which everybody in the Government and outside simply turned a blind eye to the plight of those who had been kidnapped along with Mr. Rajkumar. The plight of the Koppad family was all the more sad because the family stayed in the interiors of the State far away from Bangalore. "All attention was on Mr. Rajkumar. No one bothered about us," they say.

The indifference shown by the Government was palpable. Till this day, not even a minor minion of the Government had called on them to apprise them of whatever was happening to get the hostages released. The Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police did not bother about them and so also were the elected representatives.

The first visit by a Minister came on the 50th day of the hostage crisis when Mr. Patil and the Minister for Housing and Wakfs, Mr. A.M.Hindasgeri, called on the family. They had been preceded by Mr. Jagadish Shettar, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly.

Mr. Mahadev, Minister for Sericulture, visited them on Sunday and gave them money and promised a job for the hunch-backed son. The Government was forced to take cognizance of the plight of the family following reports in the Press.

The people of the village, who along with the members of the family, having sharing the moments of anxiety, are unhappy with the State Government for the way the Koppad family had been ignored. "Do they not have a semblance of humanitarian consideration?," they asked. They are sore that the Chief Minister did not bother to talk to the family members when the latter were in Bangalore to meet Ms. Parvathamma Rajkumar and were present when the Chief Minister called on her.

The villagers are skeptic about the role played by Nakkeeran Editor, Mr. R.R.Gopal, who appeared to bring cassettes after his visits to Veerappan.

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