Bidding farewell to retiring Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on August 8, lauded his power of speech, complimenting him on his witty one-liners.
"The one-liners of Venkaiah Naidu ji are famous. They are wit-liners,” Modi said while delivering a farewell speech in the Rajya Sabha, on the last day of the Monsoon session.
Appreciating Naidu’s command over language, intelligence and control, the Prime Minister said his words were “heard, preferred, revered and never countered."
The term of Vice President Naidu ends on August 10 and his successor Jagdeep Dhankhar will take the oath the following day.
As Naidu departs from the office of the Vice President, here’s a look at some of his witty retorts in the past.
Happy to be ‘Ushapati’
In 2017, a few weeks before his nomination as the Vice President, a few reporters asked Naidu if he was in the race to be the Rashtrapati of Up-rashtrapati. Naidu quickly replied he was happy being Ushapati or the husband of Usha, his wife.
On Manmohan Singh's government
In 2016, when Naidu was still a part of the Narendra Modi-led cabinet, he delivered a punchline about the former Manmohan Singh government, saying, “PM presides, Madam decides.”
Comparing the governance with that of the BJP, Naidu had said, “In the BJP, the President presides and the team decides.”
About the Left
Another famous jibe at the Left parties by the former VP is, “Left can never be right.”
To students
In 2018, while delivering the convocation address at Pune’s Dr D Y Patil Vidyapeeth, Naidu advised students who travel abroad for higher studies to “Go, learn, earn and return to the motherland.”
On parties
Naidu had once said about political parties that they work on a three-principle formula: “Election, selection and collection.”
He had once said about the Congress party's attitude that while the country was moving forward, “Congress is looking backward and their situation is awkward."
Farewell speech
In his farewell speech at the Rajya Sabha, Naidu said, “I never aspired to be the president, will never become a dissident and will never be confined to the residence.”
To all the members of the Upper House, he said, “We are all working on our way, we are not enemies, we are rivals.”
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
