Padma Vibhushan Venkaiah Naidu was never at his wits end — he was the wittiest!

Born on 1 July 1949 at Chavatapalem in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, he was drawn to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at an early age and was tempered by its ideology. He later joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student arm of the RSS, during his college days.

His leadership qualities blossomed quickly and he became a student leader. He graduated from VR College, Nellore, and did another bachelor’s degree in law from Andhra University, Visakhapatam.

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Making of a politician

The seminal moment in his career was his participation in Jai Andhra Movement in 1972 for a separate state for Andhra. He soon shot to fame in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. He went to jail for defying the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, which paved the way for his future career.

In his illustrious life, Naidu held several positions in the BJP and the Union government. He retired from public life after demitting the office of the country’s 13th vice-president in 2022. He held three important portfolios as a Union minister: Information and Broadcasting, Rural Development and Urban Development. He was also the president of the BJP from 2002 to 2004.

Naidu has an uncanny sense of humour and the ability to play with words while stressing a point. During the second term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), he took on the Congress, raising allegations of corruption. He once said that the Congress leaders were consummate players in the game of corruption.

“They had not left the air, nor land, nor the bowels of the earth to make money,” he said, implying 2G, land, and coal scams (zamee ke upar, zamee par, aur zameen ke neeche).

His powerful weapon has always been his disarming banter. Once when Aam Aadmi Party’s P Raghav Chadha said he had fallen in love with the Rajya Sabha, Naidu, wondered if he wasn’t contemplating falling in love with the Upper House twice and thrice as one falls in love only once, leaving the House in stitches.

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Myth-linked Aadhaar

Naidu would not mind using harsh words while disciplining members of Rajya Sabha when niceties did not work. In 2018, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was giving a lengthy speech on how Aadhaar had its genesis in the BJP’s thought process, Congress member Renuka Chowdhury let out a loud, unrestrained, and unbridled laughter, making fun of Modi’s claim.

Her laughter was so loud, unrepressed, and spontaneous, and the entire House reverberated with it, prompting Naidu, who was in the chair, to ask her to see a doctor since she seemed to be having a serious problem.

Later Modi, turned the tables on Renuka, saying that it was his fortune to hear such a laughter after a long time since the days of the Ramayan serial, implying that it reminded him of the laughter of Surpanaka, Ravana’s sister.

When the news broke that Droupadi Murmu would replace Ramnath Kovind as the president, Naidu remained non-plussed. His supporters and admirers had thought he would step into Kovind’s shoes.

But he took the development with equanimity. He said he had no desire to become the Rashtrapati and that he was content with being Ushapati (Usha is his spouse), making light of the otherwise tense moment.

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Don’t beg, just rise!

Naidu is also known for dumping the vestiges of the British colonial past in Parliament. He gave a ruling in the Rajya Sabha that one need not say “I beg” to introduce any Bill in the House and one should henceforth say “I rise” since India was now independent and no one needed to beg anyone for anything.

His dexterous handling of the House was evident when he had to control the surcharged members while the Bill for the annulment of Article 370 was being passed. Though tempers were running high and members were shouting at the top of their voices, he did not flinch. He ensured that the Bill was passed without having to adjourn the House — not even once.

While reminding the members of how one should not act even when dealing with frivolous issues, he once spoke of his “bad” habit. He said that when the late S Jaipal Reddy and he were MLAs, they had the habit of borrowing pens from colleagues and later misplacing them. “Soon, others started hiding their pens whenever they saw us passing by,” he said, leaving the members in splits.

His humour was sometimes used to draw the attention of the government to serious issues. When the members were fighting over an issue, he intervened and advised them not to waste their lung power. He asked them to leave it to him to discipline the House and not exert their lungs as they were already under tremendous pressure, breathing the highly polluted air in the country.

While advocating the need for physical exercise to remain healthy, he deplored people who ignored it. Using his humour, he said no one wants to take any strain even when in the bathroom.

“In the past, we used to bend and pick up water with a tumbler from the water container. But these days, no one wants to take even this trouble. They press the button, and lo, you have the shower running,” he said even as the audience roared with laughter.