Venkaiah wants to be people’s VP

‘I cannot live cut off from the public,’ Venkaiah Naidu said in Hyderabad.

Surendra Kumar, a 45-year-old farmer, did not raise many eyebrows when he announced a reward on the head of one who is trying to kill his son.

However, it later emerged that the announcement was for the head of a snake that has bitten his son four times in the past two years. Surendra Kumar claims that the same snake has bitten his son Brijbhan four times in the past two years.

His son had apparently killed the snake’s mate in October 2015 and the snake was “trying to seek revenge”. Surendra Kumar has even posted two armed men at his house in Khiriya village to guard his son, Brijbhan, round-the-clock.

Many snake charmers, lured by the prize money, have been thronging the farmer’s house in the hope of catching the snake and winning the prize money.

“Brijbhan, 21, had killed one of the snakes while they were mating in October 2015. A year later, he was bitten by the snake for the first time and thereafter, he has been bitten thrice again in May, July and then the first week of August this year. It is the same reptile which keeps striking at my son and the villagers say that the snake is taking revenge,” Surendra Kumar told reporters.

He said that his son survived the snakebites mainly because the snake was non-venomous.

“But we cannot live in fear all the time. I take my son to a local snake charmer whenever he is bitten. The snake charmer has failed to capture the snake, which appears and then disappears suddenly,” the worried father said. The family has consulted local pundits and has planted herbs all around the house to keep the snake away, but the remedy is obviously not working. Meanwhile, Brijendra Yadav, veterinarian at the Lucknow Zoo, said that “Cases of snakebite rise rapidly during monsoon when the reptiles venture out of their burrows. Repeated snakebites, in this case, are a coincidence and the snake is harmless because it apparently belongs to a nonpoisonous variety.”

Wildlife expert and retired sub-divisional forest official N.K. Upadhyaya said, “One of the easy ways to differentiate between a poisonous and non-poisonous variety is to observe the tail. The poisonous ones have pointed tails. In India, there are several varieties of snakes, but most are non-venomous. Often people exaggerate their experiences and believe they have been bitten by a venomous snake. A snake taking revenge is completely illogical.” The new Vice-President, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu prefers to be in touch with people as he used to be till now, even after he took over the second highest Constitutional position in India on Friday. This is what he conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP top brass, including party president Amit Shah, when they picked him as the party candidate for the post last month. According to sources close to the VicePresident, both PM Modi and Shah had agreed to his wish and they were confident that he would enhance the image of his position in the next five years. Though he didn’t say in so many words, Venkaiah Naidu, too, confirmed this to select media persons at a breakfast get-together hosted in his honour here this week.

Right from his typical Andhra attire of white shirt and lungi ( adda panche), Venkaiah doesn’t want to give up any of his style and lifestyle even after occupying the VicePresident’s post. Not just that, he also doesn’t want to lose touch with people, public representatives and friends in his new apolitical avatar. “I will continue to be available to you all, though I may not speak politics henceforth,” he said at the get-together.

That they are not casual assurances was evident from the fact that Venkaiah Naidu had made enquiries with the staff of the Vice-President’s office as well as the Chairman of Rajya Sabha to know to what extent he could be in touch with the public and public representatives, what were his do’s and don’ts and what he could do if an MP or a state lawmaker came to him for any help.

Venakaiah Naidu called for details of the style of functioning of previous Vice Presidents, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Mohammad Hidayatullah, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, Krishna Kant and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, among others, so that he can find ways to mingle with people. The new VicePresident is keen on studying his powers as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Articles 64 and 65 of the Constitution, which speak about the Vice-President’s powers, merely say that the person will have to act as the President with full powers only when there is either a vacancy to the post or the President cannot discharge her or his duties. Otherwise, the Vice-President doesn’t have any executive powers in normal times.

Sources close to Venkaiah Naidu explained to this newspaper that he will, of course, have powers as the Chairman of RS, which is also called the Council of States in the Constitution. The new Vice-President is examining his powers to call Union ministers or seek their explanations if they fail to keep their assurances given in the Upper House. However, he cannot directly intervene in matters. Other than this, Venkaiah Naidu will not have many differences in his active pubic life. He will visit Hyderabad and districts in Andhra Pradesh on weekends, like in the past and participate in social, literary and non-political meetings. “Being away from politics doesn’t mean being away from people. I cannot live cut off from the public,” Venkaiah Naidu said at the get-together.

The presence of MPs from TDP, TRS and YSR Congress at his swearing-in ceremony on Friday indicated his continued popularity among political parties in both Telangana and AP. All leading daily newspapers in Hyderabad carried full-page advertisements greeting him on his assuming the Vice-President’s office. He is expected back in Hyderabad on Sunday for a felicitation. Pressure mounted by Tollywood, the Telugu film industry, on the TRS government in Telangana not to chase some more celebrities in the ongoing drugs racket that was unearthed in Hyderabad in June end, seems to have slowed down the investigation of the case in which already 20 persons were arrested and 30 others questioned, according to sources in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Excise and Prohibition.

Due to this pressure, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has agreed to treat all the detected drug addicts or random users, including those from the film world, as just victims instead of accused as per earlier stand.

This has drastically altered the scope and nature of the investigation that was aimed at curbing the drugs racket deeply entrenched in the film fraternity, as well as in educational institutions in Hyderabad for over a decade.

A major reason for the government buying the argument of Tollywood bigwigs is that the massive grilling and framing of many film people would dent “Brand Hyderabad”, which draws IT industries, and affect the film shootings here. Hyderabad accounts for 30% of film shootings and post-production work in the country.

The SIT, which has been probing the case has created ripples in the film industry by summoning as many as a dozen stars, heroines, directors and technicians to its head office at Nampally in the city from 19 July to 2 August. Leading star Ravi Teja, hero Tarun, director Puri Jagannath, heroine Charmee and some actors and technicians were among those who were questioned.

The SIT was supposed to serve notices to another batch of a dozen or so celebrities as their names had figured during the questioning. A few top rated stars and producers are believed to be in the next list.

But now the Enforcement wing of Excise and Prohibition, which has formed the SIT, has decided not to announce the second list of film people and grill them amid media glare, but instead record their statements at the latter’s convenience, only to implicate the arrested accused.

All the celebrities were served notices based on the data base of one of the arrested accused, Calvin Mascarenhas, 28, a drug dealer who operates between Goa and Hyderabad. Another dozen locals, including a few youth from Bangalore, were taken into custody based on the confessions of Calvin and another accused Brendon Ben, a 27-year operative. The SIT made a breakthrough with the arrest of key drug peddler, Dutch national Mike Kamminga, 35, from his rented house on the city outskirts on 26 July. However, unlike other arrested peddlers, Kamminga has refused to cooperate with the SIT and share data on his iPhone which is now in police custody.

R.V. Chandravadan, Excise and Prohibition Commissioner, however, told The Sunday Guardian that there was no question of anyone being involved in the drugs case being let off. “We have got full mandate to bring to book the accused, however big they may be,” he said. When contacted, the office of Akun Sabharwal, director of the Enforcement wing, said that the second list was still being readied.