Venkaiah’s native village not overjoyed at his ‘promotion’

Chavatapalem (Nellore): BJP may have favoured veteran leader M Venkaiah Naidu for the prestigious position of Vice-President as part of its Mission South or for any other reason, but the people of his native village under Venkatachalam mandal are not overjoyed at the development as they see this an end to the development in the region.

Highlights:

• People of Chavatapalem express mixed feelings on his new responsibility
• Most of the villagers apprehend his removal from active politics will result in an end to the development of the village
• Some even see ulterior motives in party leadership’s decision to end his career in active politics

Venkaiah was a two-time MLA of the AP Legislative Assembly, a four-time member of Rajya Sabha, and held many important positions in government for the last four decades. Most of the 2,000 residents of the village are even criticising Amit Shah’s “master stroke” of promoting their son of the soil to a titular post.

“We are very happy that my family member is going to be Vice-President of the country but local people have doubts whether there is a chance for any public life for hit hereafter to take care of development of local region or not.
This is the only painful thing for us. Still, the locals are expecting that he would support the region and the state for its growth,” said L Manoharamma, 75, younger sister of Venkaiah’s mother-in-law, who resides in the village.

She said Venkaiah’s mother Ramanamma named him as Venkaiah after Lord Balaji in Bitragunta, wishing that he would be as popular as the deity.

Venkaiah’s father, a farmer of the village, had married Ramanamma of neighbouring village Sriramapuram. He had a house in the village which he sold later. There are constructions coming up on the site bought by four different persons recently. Just opposite the house, a small reading room was constructed and was opened to public in 2003, which is being maintained by Kataru Murahari, 69, a childhood friend of Venkaiah.

Currently, Venkaiah, who has neither any land or ancestral house in the village, is planning to acquire 10 cents of land where he can at least spend some time in future though he has houses in other parts of the district. Now, people who remember his work for the development of the village and its surroundings, wistfully sigh that they may not freely meet him as in the past as he would be Vice-President of the country.

“Some decades ago, his car broke down outside the village while he was coming to the village. He left stranded for 4-5 hours on the outskirts. Then I was going to my agriculture field on the bullock cart. On seeing him and the car, I towed it into the village with my bullock cart. He still remembers the olden days whenever we meet.

We doubt that we can meet him hereafter frequently as in the past,” said K Mohan Rao, a septuagenarian of the village. He praises Venkaiah for his benevolence and foresight to develop the village by providing many facilities.

A teacher of the local mandal parishad upper primary school Murthyraju Sumati says, “We always ask our children to take Venkaiah as role model to achieve the highest status of the nation. Now, we are very proud of working in a village from where the Vice President was born and brought up.”

Finally, a semi-literate villager quipped that the party had tactfully eliminated Venkaiah from active politics. “He is bold and has good oratorical skills. Amit Shah had played a simple trick and it seems Venkaiah has no other go but to obey directions of the party. We understand his inner feelings and still we love him and continue to respect him even as the Vice-President,” he added.

By P V Prasad