THIS is a compilation of select speeches made by M Venkaiah Naidu, whose four-decade-long stay in public life is marked by his steady evolution from a student leader to a youth leader, member of the State Legislative Assembly, president of the state unit of the BJP, member of the Rajya Sabha and spokesperson of the BJP. Despite a rising political career, Shri Naidu comes through as a down-to-earth person unwilling to compromise with his chosen political philosophy and patriotism.
Since the beginning of his political career, he has been bound by one philosophy and one party and his commitment has never vacillated with the political fortunes of his party at the hustings. What is surprising is that despite crossing 60 years of life, he proudly attends the shakha of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, clad in khaki shorts. Shri Venkaiah Naidu took over the reins of the BJP at the national level as its president at a young age when Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister and Shri Lal Krishna Advani was the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister.
In this compilation of select speeches made by him over the years, one can see a fine blend of criticism, punch and the power of content, leaving millions spellbound across the country. People in the north are surprised over his felicity and proficiency in Hindi.
At his presidential speech to the National Council of BJP in New Delhi on August 3, 2002, Shri Venkaiah Naidu appealed to all political parties to work together to raise the level of political discourse in and outside Parliament and state legislatures. He exhorted all, “Let us focus more on people’s issues and challenges before the nation, such as population control, environment, water conservation, etc. It is our collective responsibility to remove the widespread sense of cynicism about politics and to improve the image of politicians in the eyes of the common people.” He was disturbed at the frequent strikes and bandh causing inconvenience to the public and the destruction of public property.
At the meeting of the National Executive on December 23, 2002, he said, “If anybody asks us whether we would repeat the Gujarat ‘experiment’ elsewhere, our answer would be, ‘Yes. We shall replicate our Gujarat experience everywhere, because in Gujarat we have again proved to ourselves that collective work is the key to success.”
At the meeting of the National Executive in 2004, he said that the BJP shall pursue the “role of an effective opposition with a constructive and responsible approach. We have patience to sit in the opposition. We shall spare no opportunity to expose the contradictions, compulsions, compromises and failures of the new government (Congress). Our campaign against the tainted ministers in the Manmohan Singh government is only the beginning. We shall soon launch a nationwide campaign against the Congress and communist parties’ vile attempts to re-falsify India’s history in the name of ‘desaffronisation’ of textbooks.”
On BJP’s unfair criticism by the other parties, he had hit out, “The casteist forces, communal forces and corrupt forces have joined together. Their only agenda is to destroy and denigrate the nationalist forces…”
There are many other interesting speeches given in the book which pertain to the rise in prices of commodities, increase in price of petroleum products, anti-people’s budget and other subjects of topical interest. The book has to be read to get an idea of what Shri Venkaiah Naidu and his party believe in.
(Alakananda Prachuranalu, #59-6-15, Kanchukota Street, Opposite Maris Stella College, Vijayawada-520 008; [email protected])
