A Reluctant Vice President ?

"We are united, they are divided, we are confident,
 they are diffident, we are moving forward, they are
 looking backward" 
- Venkaiah Naidu on opposition joining hands for nominating a presidential candidate.

This statement has many aspects. First, it surely justifies the rise and rise of BJP and the reason behind its grand success in recent scenario of Indian politics. 

Second, it reflects the hostile nature of our vice president elect whose sense of belongingness and loyalty to his party is quite strong and is clearly evident.

Now, let's see what is the major role of a Vice President ? To chair the Rajya Sabha, a house that James Madison (Father of American Constitution) described as the great anchor of the government and whose slower processes and higher thresholds for action would guard against the “fickleness and passion” of public opinion (passed in Lok Sabha). So, this is a post that requires a person to be tact, a good diplomat and a possessor of good relations with fellow parliamentarians. 

V. Naidu is surely poetic with words and has a good sense of humour but his ability to coordinate with fellow members of parliament, particularly that of opposition, is questionable as he was removed as parliamentary affairs minister because of being too aggressive in defending the government and taking on the opposition. This, surely questions his diplomacy skills.

Then, why did BJP chose him as their vice presidential candidate even when the man himself was quite unwilling to quit active politics and even recently quoted - "I wanted to see Mr Modi come back to power in 2019 and after that I wanted to resign from active politics". There can be many reasons for this.

First and foremost , the opposition was quite witty in nominating Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a former bureaucrat and Governor, for the post of vice president, which forced the centre to nominate a name that would command respect along with votes too.

Secondly, BJP is trying to expand its base in South India, where it was able to win a meagre 21 out of the 66 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

 A section of BJP and RSS thinks that being the seniormost leader for the party in southern India, he was not doing enough for its expansion and had a soft corner for chief minister and Telugu Desam Party's Chandrababu Naidu, who belongs to the same caste as him.

So, BJP looked upon this as an opportunity to kill 2 birds with a single stone by representing South India (symbolically) at a constitutional post thus maintaining a north-south balance and making V. Naidu quit active politics.

Well, this might also be a part and parcel of the game plan in which the RSS has started to resist and agitate against the cut throat politics (in literal sense) of the communists in Kerala.

But all said and done, it might not go well with the South Indians as they are well versed to differntiate a 'passive' post from an 'active' one and senior leaders of Andhra like Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishnamurthy and HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao expressed the same opinion that even though the Vice-President is a respectable position, Venkaiah Naidu should continue as Union Minister.

Thirdly, his forced retirement from active politics is seen as the beginning of removal of the older lot from the cabinet to bring younger faces.

Well, as they say, time answers everything, all our confusions and conjectures would be laid to rest once Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu assumes his office on August 11, but one thing is for sure, loss of all the constitutional posts and the power matrices mark the final nail in the coffin of the Congress and they need to restrategise fiercely if they need to rise from the grave !!

-AMAN BANSAL

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