VEEP: Venkaiah Emerges Excellent Politician

Seasoned politician Venkaiah Naidu was announced as the NDA’s Vice-Presidential candidate on July 17, with polling to be held on Saturday. Some political commentators have stated that Naidu is an ideal candidate not only for his links with both the RSS and the ABVP (embodying the ethos of the Sangh), but also because he symbolises the BJP’s aspirations for increasing their vote share in the southern states. And add to this, the need for a veteran to effectively handle the Rajya Sabha has been cited as another reason for Naidu’s candidacy.

Naidu, a popular orator, is also one of the few politicians to have a sense of humour – more often than not at the expense of Opposition parties and leaders. Over the years he has shown a penchant for acronyms, alliterations, and Narendra Damodardas Modi, referring to the latter as god’s gift to India. On occasion, he combines these passions, which can result in rather ridiculous statements.

In a session of the Lok Sabha, he once said, “Sir, you have to appreciate if you have a leader with character, calibre, capacity, and conduct, discipline, dynamism, dedication, devotion. You must give hats off to that leader.”

While discussing the Jawaharlal Nehru University row of February 2016, Parliament focused on the poster for the cultural event that kicked off the whole chain of events. The event was called ‘A Country Without  A Post Office’, after a poem by Kashmiri-American poet Agha Shahid Ali. Not only did Parliament file an RTI to find out about the postal facilities in Jammu and Kashmir, but Naidu declared with great panache, “The heading of the poster says: ‘A country without a post office’. Is India without post office? The entire world is looking towards India under the great leadership of Shri Narendra Modiji today.”

Keeping in line with his Modi bhakti, Naidu also coined a reverse acronym for ‘MODI’ as ‘Making of Developed India’, which was later used by the Union government in its public outreach campaign on completion of three years in power. ‘Modifier of Developing India’ was another reverse acronym created by Naidu for the PM.

The NDA Vice-Presidential nominee has not shied away from using contracted text message lingo either. While addressing a crowd of prospective future election bankrollers at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi, Naidu expanded on the reverse acronym of ‘young’. “Young means “You Owe U & Nation Greatness,” said the former Cabinet Minister.

Taking aim at the Congress-led UPA, Naidu has, in the recent past, said, “”Dynasty in democracy is nasty, but tasty for some.” In a statement he made in 2005, he was quoted as saying, “The UPA Government, brought together to protect vested interests could have been better called `’Ulta Pulta” (topsy turvy) Alliance”.

Digs at the Congress do not stop there. Offering a clear demarcation between the Congress and the BJP (in retrospect, a clear political line for the latter), Naidu said, at the National Council meeting of the BJP in 2014, “”We say Ram…Ram…Ram. They say scam…scam…scam.”

Even members of the Congress were not safe from Naidu’s one-liners, as he quipped at Mallikarjun Kharge, when the latter interrupted him in Parliament, “Please, Kharge Ji. Kharge Ji, you spoke for 72 minutes. Almost equivalent to your age also.”

In response to what he deemed an RSS obsession of the Opposition, Naidu said, “Day and night you keep remembering RSS, RSS. God bless you.”

Adhering to the cliche of saving the best for last, Naidu was at his bewildering best in Parliament as he retorted to broken-record-for-an-Opposition:

“When I was a child we used to listen to HMV gramophone records. Sometimes the pin would get stuck and play the same song on loop for days. Challani Raja, Oh Chandamama, Oh Chandamama, Oh Chandamama, Oh Chandamama, Oh Chandamama. My point is, my friends, if they want to raise the issue they must have the patience to hear the response too. One way traffic nahi chalega.”