Published Jan 26, 2026 | 1:39 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 26, 2026 | 1:39 PM
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
For many, getting into Harvard University in the US is a once-in-a-lifetime dream. For students from Telugu-medium government schools, it often feels like a castle in the air — nice to look at, impossible to reach. However, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy clearly believes in never saying never.
Raised in the rugged rural hinterland of Mahabubnagar district, he has now checked himself into the Ivy League — hallowed turf usually reserved for the global elite.
One of the eight Ivy League universities in the US, Harvard is famed for academic excellence and an admissions process that separates the wheat from the chaff with surgical precision.
And now, Telangana’s firebrand chief minister has swapped the Secretariat for the classroom, enrolling in a leadership programme titled “Leadership for the 21st Century: Chaos, Conflict and Courage.” Aptly named, some might say.
Although he is middle-aged, Revanth Reddy has donned the student’s cap once again. There will be classes to attend, homework to complete, and presentations to make — very much like a schoolboy on his best behaviour. The programme is a crash course in every sense, squeezed into a single week from 25 to 30 January.
The chief minister, who is feeling that he should brush up on leadership, has raised quite a few eyebrows. After all, he is known for fiery speeches, midnight bulldozer drives against encroachments, and an uncanny knack for dragging his BRS rivals into almost every public address.
It is a habit that refuses to die. Yet, here he is, reliving his student days — this time in an elite institution — with classmates from over 20 countries. Together, they will dissect global case studies on chaos, conflict and courage — territory that Revanth Reddy is no stranger to, whether by design or default.
At the end of the course, he will also receive a certificate — one that might deliver a rush more intoxicating than the Election Commission’s declaration certifying his victory at the hustings.
Perhaps the chief minister believes that governing a state requires lifelong learning. After all, his daily inbox is crammed with farmer protests, IIT Corridor traffic snarls, and Opposition barbs comparing him to everything from a bulldozer man to a Bollywood villain. A dash of Ivy League perspective might help cover what critics often call his Achilles’ heel: elite education.
BRS leaders, particularly, never miss a chance to compare him unfavourably with KT Rama Rao, often needling him over his lack of polish, idiomatic English, and ease at high-profile global conclaves.
Unsurprisingly, the Opposition has already begun to lampoon him for extending his trip from Davos to the US. While most Indian delegates flew back home, Revanth Reddy pressed on westward in pursuit of an Ivy League avatar.
Former social media director of the Telangana government, when the BRS was in power, Dileep Konatham recently quipped that people act according to their station: “KTR gets invited to lecture at Harvard, while Revanth goes there to attend a leadership course — after paying the requisite fee.”
KTR, for his part, remarked that he hoped the chief minister would at least pick up a veneer of decency in public speech. The million-dollar question now is this: After his Ivy League stint, will his trademark press conference zingers take a sabbatical — or will old habits return?
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
