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This is an archive article published on October 14, 2024

G N Saibaba’s family remembers lost years: ‘Didn’t have enough of him’

Saibaba, 57, died late October 12 following post-operative complications from a gallbladder surgery at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad. The family said Saibaba’s body would be donated to Gandhi Medical College in Telangana on Monday.

Vasantha and G N Saibaba at their residence in Delhi in April. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha/File)

“There is no Vasantha without Sai,” says Vasantha, her voice steady through the grief, hours after the death of her husband G N Saibaba, a former Assistant Professor at Delhi University and a human rights advocate.

Saibaba, 57, died late October 12 following post-operative complications from a gallbladder surgery at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad. The family said Saibaba’s body would be donated to Gandhi Medical College in Telangana on Monday.

A former professor of English at Delhi University’s Ram Lal Anand College, Saibaba spent a decade in jail over alleged Maoist links before he was acquitted by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court and released from Nagpur Central Jail on March 7.

The years in jail, many of those in the infamous Anda Cell, took away 10 years of his life as the wheelchair-bound activist endured physical hardships and legal setbacks.

A former professor of English at Delhi University’s Ram Lal Anand College, Saibaba spent a decade in jail over alleged Maoist links. (Express Photo)

A former professor of English at Delhi University’s Ram Lal Anand College, Saibaba spent a decade in jail over alleged Maoist links. (Photo Credits: Vasantha)

This was also the time Saibaba wrote “hundreds of letters” — many of these to his wife Vasantha, his childhood sweetheart who he met at a coaching centre in Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh.

“We went to the same centre. One day, Sai was late and the teacher asked me to help him with the lessons. That was the start,” Vasantha had said in an earlier interview to The Indian Express, when Saibaba was admitted to AIIMS for a series of tests for complications sustained during his jail stint.

G.N. Saibaba and his wife Vasantha were childhood sweethearts; they met at a coaching centre in Amalapuram, Andhra Pradesh. (Express Photo)

G N Saibaba and his wife Vasantha were childhood sweethearts; they met at a coaching centre in Amalapuram, Andhra Pradesh. (Photo Credits: Vasantha)

As she now struggles to deal with the loss, Vasantha, speaking on the phone from Hyderabad, says: “Sai and I have been together since we were children. We fell in love, shared ideas, shared our life, and we became one. He may not be physically present for me, but he is still alive, and will always be, in my heart.”

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As love stories go, Vasantha and Saibaba’s journey together would be put through severe stress tests after his arrest in 2014. With DU suspending Saibaba three days after the arrest, Vasantha was left to figure it out all by herself. Without a home and with her teenage daughter by her side, Vasantha, with help from well-wishers and students of Saibaba, fought a long and difficult legal battle.

As she now struggles to deal with the loss, Vasantha, speaking on the phone from Hyderabad, says: “Sai and I have been together since we were children. We fell in love, shared ideas, shared our life, and we became one." (Express Photo)

In the earlier interview to The Indian Express in April, Saibaba had broken down as he said: “When Vasantha’s mother was alive, she would borrow from her but she passed away during Covid… and life got very difficult.”

The long, difficult years, however, didn’t chip away at their relationship. “Until my arrest, Vasantha and I had never been separated for a single day. Ours isn’t just a romantic relationship… It’s more than that. We are in love even now,” he had said.

While Vasantha juggled home, the visits to jail and the legal battle, it didn’t help that Manjeera, who was barely 15 when her father was taken away, was struggling to deal with the sudden vacuum in her life. Like her father, she would study English literature and even did her undergraduation from the same college where he once taught. “Manjeera would have been my student if I hadn’t been arrested,” Saibaba had said.

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So while Manjeera was doing her Master’s course from St Stephen’s College in Delhi, he would encourage her to send him copies of the novels she was reading — from Shakespeare to Indian writing in English and one of their “multiple common favourites”, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. “He would write notes for me on these novels, and I would share these notes with my entire class… Literature was how we bonded,” Manjeera tells The Indian Express from Hyderabad.

“Until my arrest, Vasantha and I had never been separated for a single day. Ours isn’t just a romantic relationship… It’s more than that. We are in love even now,” he had said in an interview with the Indian Express. (Photo Credits: Vasantha)

With Saibaba’s acquittal in March, the void Manjeera felt through much of her teenage years seemed to fill in again. Manjeera says: “I spent the most formative years of my life without him. Even though we wrote letters, I always missed having him around when he was in jail. So when he got back seven months ago, just hugging him, just to be able to fiddle with his hands, him patting my head made me so relaxed. I didn’t know I would lose that warmth so soon.”

A picture of G N Saibaba with this wife Vasantha and daughter Manjeera. (Express Photo)

A picture of G N Saibaba with this wife Vasantha and daughter Manjeera. (Photo Credits: Vasantha)

Also Read | G N Saibaba passes away: Timeline of UAPA case against him

Manjeera recently enrolled for a PhD from the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad. “He was so invested in my PhD topic,” she says. “He would encourage me to write and get published and said he would do the same. He told me, ‘Since we are both procrastinators, I will egg you on and you do that to me.’ But now he is gone. We had made so many plans. Now that he was back from jail, I thought my father would be with me for a lifetime. And he just goes away in seven months! Though I still don’t feel like he has gone away for good. I keep thinking if I dial his number, he might just answer and tell me what to do.”

Also Read | Express View on G N Saibaba’s death: A sobering reminder

Vasantha, too, has been struggling. “I keep thinking that I did not have enough of him… Didn’t see him enough, didn’t talk enough,” she says quietly.

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How would Manjeera want her father to be remembered? “You know, as a child, I once asked him why he was doing all this. Why are you trying to be so selfless and all? He told me, ‘You grew up in the city and are much more individuated… with a sense of self. But I grew up in the village, in a community. My ideas and sense of beliefs stem from that sense of community. I view myself as someone who is part of the whole community. So I don’t look at it as any individual loss or gain that I am facing.’ That’s how he would like to be remembered — as one of the people.”

Vidheesha Kuntamalla

Vidheesha Kuntamalla is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express, based in New Delhi. She is known for her investigative reporting on higher education policy, international student immigration, and academic freedom on university campuses. Her work consistently connects policy decisions with lived realities, foregrounding how administrative actions, political pressure, and global shifts affect students, faculty, and institutions. Professional Profile Core Beat Vidheesha covers education in Delhi and nationally, reporting on major public institutions including the University of Delhi (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia, the IITs, and the IIMs. She also reports extensively on private and government schools in the National Capital Region. Prior to joining The Indian Express, she worked as a freelance journalist in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for over a year, covering politics, rural issues, women-centric issues, and social justice. Specialisation She has developed a strong niche in reporting on the Indian student diaspora, particularly the challenges faced by Indian students and H-1B holders in the United States. Her work examines how geopolitical shifts, immigration policy changes, and campus politics impact global education mobility. She has also reported widely on: * Mental health crises and student suicides at IITs * Policy responses to campus mental health * Academic freedom and institutional clampdowns at JNU, South Asian University (SAU), and Delhi University * Curriculum and syllabus changes under the National Education Policy Her recent reporting has included deeply reported human stories on policy changes during the Trump administration and their consequences for Indian students and researchers in the US. Reporting Style Vidheesha is recognised for a human-centric approach to policy reporting, combining investigative depth with intimate storytelling. Her work often highlights the anxieties of students and faculty navigating bureaucratic uncertainty, legal precarity, and institutional pressure. She regularly works with court records, internal documents, official data, and disciplinary frameworks to expose structural challenges to academic freedom. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2024 & 2025) 1. Express Investigation Series JNU’s fault lines move from campus to court: University fights students and faculty (November 2025) An Indian Express investigation found that since 2011, JNU has appeared in over 600 cases before the Delhi High Court, filed by the administration, faculty, staff, students, and contractual workers across the tenures of three Vice-Chancellors. JNU’s legal wars with students and faculty pile up under 3 V-Cs | Rs 30-lakh fines chill campus dissent (November 2025) The report traced how steep monetary penalties — now codified in the Chief Proctor’s Office Manual — are reshaping dissent and disciplinary action on campus. 2. International Education & Immigration ‘Free for a day. Then came ICE’: Acquitted after 43 years, Indian-origin man faces deportation — to a country he has never known (October 2025) H-1B $100,000 entry fee explained: Who pays, who’s exempt, and what’s still unclear? (September 2025) Khammam to Dallas, Jhansi to Seattle — audacious journeys in pursuit of the American dream after H-1B visa fee hike (September 2025) What a proposed 15% cap on foreign admissions in the US could mean for Indian students (October 2025) Anxiety on campus after Trump says visas of pro-Palestinian protesters will be cancelled (January 2025) ‘I couldn’t believe it’: F-1 status of some Indian students restored after US reverses abrupt visa terminations (April 2025) 3. Academic Freedom & Policy Exclusive: South Asian University fires professor for ‘inciting students’ during stipend protests (September 2025) Exclusive: Ministry seeks explanation from JNU V-C for skipping Centre’s meet, views absence ‘seriously’ (July 2025) SAU rows after Noam Chomsky mentions PM Modi, Lankan scholar resigns, PhD student exits SAU A series of five stories examining shrinking academic freedom at South Asian University after global scholar Noam Chomsky referenced Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an academic interaction, triggering administrative unease and renewed debate over political speech, surveillance, and institutional autonomy on Indian campuses. 4. Mental Health on Campuses In post-pandemic years, counselling rooms at IITs are busier than ever; IIT-wise data shows why (August 2025) Campus suicides: IIT-Delhi panel flags toxic competition, caste bias, burnout (April 2025) 5. Delhi Schools These Delhi government school grads are now success stories. Here’s what worked — and what didn’t (February 2025) ‘Ma’am… may I share something?’ Growing up online and alone, why Delhi’s teens are reaching out (December 2025) ... Read More

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