Venkaiah Naidu says he is proud and fortunate to serve the people as Vice-President 

Former Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu reflects on his 50-year political journey, emphasizing integrity, public service, and education in mother tongue.

Former Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu recalled the grind he had gone through before chancing upon the opportunity to occupy the prestigious office of the No. 2 Constitutional head and humbly serve the people in that role, at a felicitation organised here on August 11, Sunday, on the occasion of his completion of 50 years in politics and the receipt of Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second highest civilian honour, recently.  

On the occasion, Mr. Naidu said he was fortunate to have had the cooperation and support of many leaders and eminent personalities right from the initial days of his political career and even before that, when he aspired to be an advocate as per his mother’s wish, for which he even got himself enrolled as a junior to Justice P.A. Choudhary but veered to take the plunge into politics by a quirk of fate. 

He said his joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was also not by volition but he was somehow attracted to it by Bhogadi Durga Prasad and Somepalli Somaiah, who were his first mentors in that Sangh Parivar outfit, and went on to make his mark in the national politics as a dedicated soldier of the RSS, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and then the Bharatiya Janata Party. 

Mr. Naidu said he was proud to have become the Vice-President but would never forget all those who stood by him through thick and thin in his personal life and also in politics where he had suffered many setbacks including backstabbing by some of his own party leaders. 

While thanking those who felicitated him, he stressed the need for present-day leaders to be exemplars of probity in public life, a healthy political discourse in the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies of States and, more importantly, a genuine concern for people’s problems and sincere efforts to solve them. 

He also exhorted the All India Services officers to discharge their duties within the Constitutional framework and as per their conscience, and the people to protect native culture and traditions. Besides, he emphasised the importance of education in one’s mother tongue at the foundational level, by citing among other things the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose leadership won global acclaim, never went to a convent.