A Man of Many Seasons

AS ANDHRA PRADESH chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu turned 75, his journey bears a great resemblance to another 75-year-old—the Republic of India.

- NARA LOKESH

His story is that of a boy from an unelectrified village who came to be the longest-serving chief minister of the Telugu states and one of the makers of modern India.

As India moved into its most transformative period of the 1990s and beyond, Naidu played a key role in designing and implementing the major reforms that shaped the strong and self-reliant India that we see today. 75 is a great time to look back and reflect on the incredible journey filled with several highs and lows. One can understand his life from the prism of three key pillars of his personality—an enormous propensity for risk, a firm belief in the potential of the Telugu community, and a dedication to the Telugu Desam Party beyond self and family.

Naidu - the risk-taker Several watershed moments of his life have been a result of his propensity to take risk. Undoubtedly the biggest risk Naidu took has been risking his own life while taking on the scourge of Maoists in his first two terms as CM of the united Andhra Pradesh between 1995 and 2004.