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I'll try to bridge rural-urban disparity, says Venkaiah

Y Siva Sankar in Bombay

India's new Rural Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has said his top priority would be to tackle the urban bias in development. "I shall endeavour to bridge the disparity," he told rediff.com

He said the rural sector had always got a short shrift from the planners. "Injustice has always been done to rural India," he said in a telephone interview.

Sounding very excited over landing the rural development portfolio, Naidu said it is a subject very close to heart. "I'm a son of a kisan (farmer). I understand the farmers' problems very well."

Asked if he is disappointed for not getting a glamorous portfolio, Naidu laughed off the question. "Non Resident Indians may not be as interested in rural development as they are in information technology and international trade. But it is a very important area," he said. "Allocation of portfolios is the prime minister's prerogative. I'm grateful to him that he has chosen me to shoulder this responsibility."

Naidu disclosed that he knew three days in advance that he was going to be inducted into the Union Cabinet. "It will take some time for me to understand the finer points of the rural development ministry though," he said.

He agreed that his home state -- Andhra Pradesh -- never had it so good as far as the number of berths in the Union Council of Ministers is concerned. Asked if there is more to it than meets the eye, Naidu said: "Well, it's a sign that AP's importance is rising at the national level. This will boost development and strengthen the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in AP."

The Telugu Desam Party, a regional political outfit founded by N T Rama Rao in 1983, is the leading and ruling party in AP, and supports the NDA coalition at the Centre from outside. The BJP, in truck with the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, put in an impressive performance in the last general elections, bagging six Lok Sabha seats from AP.

BJP MPs Bandaru Dattatreya, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, U V Krishnam Raju are members of the Union Council of Ministers. Another MP, Bangaru Laxman, was a minister of state for railways before he took over as BJP president.

Venkaiah Naidu, however, is a Rajya Sabha member, having got elected from Karnataka.

PTI adds:

Party man Venkaiah Naidu makes debut in government

Venkaiah Naidu, who makes his debut in the Union Council of Ministers, brings with him long years of political experience having held a wide range of posts in the BJP.

Fiftyone-year-old Naidu, who joined politics in his student days, was chairman of the students union at college and university.

He was convener of the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Chatra Sangharsh Samiti in Andhra Pradesh in 1974.

He was leader of the BJP in the AP legislative assembly and was general secretary of the BJP's AP unit for three years from 1985.

Naidu was elected twice from the Udayagiri assembly constituency in Nellore district in 1978 and 1983 and in April 1998, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

The BJP leader, who has been party spokesman for the last five years, has been its general secretary since 1993 and has also held the post of secretary of the BJP Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee.

It was as party spokesman that he came into the national political limelight and his adept handling of the media brought him into focus.

At one point he did not seem too keen on being inducted into the Cabinet though he always maintained that "if the party leadership desires, I will abide by it."

FROM THE REDIFF ARCHIVES:

March 27, 1998: Transcript of the Rediff Chat with M Venkaiah Naidu

EXTERNAL LINK:

Bio-data of M Venkaiah Naidu

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