Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (; 19 May 1913 – 1 June 1996) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth
President of India
The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...
, serving from 1977 to 1982. Beginning a long political career with the
Indian National Congress Party
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
in the
independence movement, he went on to hold several key offices in
independent India — as Deputy Chief minister of
Andhra state and the first
Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh, a two-time
Speaker of the Lok Sabha and a Union Minister— before becoming the Indian president.
Born in present-day
Anantapur district,
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...
, Reddy completed his schooling at
Adayar and joined the Government Arts College at Anantapur. He quit to become an
Indian independence activist and was jailed for participating in the
Quit India Movement. He was elected to the
Madras Legislative Assembly in 1946 as a
Congress party representative. Reddy became the deputy chief minister of
Andhra State in 1953 and the first
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1956. He was a union cabinet minister under Prime Ministers
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White R ...
and
Indira Gandhi from 1964 to 1967 and
Lok Sabha Speaker
The speaker of the Lok Sabha (IAST: ) is the presiding officer and the highest official of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India. The speaker is elected generally in the first meeting of the Lok Sabha following general ele ...
from 1967 to 1969. He later retired from active politics but returned in 1975, responding to
Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...
's call for "
Total Revolution
The JP movement also known as Bihar Movement was a political movement initiated by students in the Indian state of Bihar in 1974 and led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, against misrule and corruptio ...
" against the Indira Gandhi Government.
Elected to Parliament in 1977 as a candidate of the
Janata Party
The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nat ...
, Reddy was unanimously elected Speaker of the Sixth Lok Sabha and three months later was elected unopposed as President of India. As president, Reddy worked with Prime Ministers
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...
,
Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi. Reddy was succeeded by
Giani Zail Singh in 1982 and he retired to his farm in Anantapur. He died in 1996 and his ''
samadhi'' is at Kalpally Burial Ground, Bangalore. In 2013, the
Government of Andhra Pradesh commemorated Reddy's birth centenary.
Education and family
Reddy was born into a
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
-speaking Hindu family in Illur village,
Madras Presidency
The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including th ...
(present-day
Anantapur district,
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...
) on 19 May 1913.
He studied at the
Theosophical High School at
Adayar in
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Tamil Nadu, the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, Indian state. The largest city ...
and later enrolled at the Government Arts College at Anantapur, an affiliate of the
University of Madras, as an
undergraduate
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...
. In 1958,
Sri Venkateswara University
Sri Venkateswara University (commonly referred as S. V. University or SVU) is a public state university located in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. The university is named after Lord Venkateswara, whose shrine is located in the city.
The ...
,
Tirupati bestowed the degree of
Honorary Doctor of Laws on him because of his role in its founding.
Reddy was married to Neelam Nagaratnamma. The couple had one son and three daughters.
Role in the Indian independence movement
Reddy joined the
Indian struggle for independence
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...
from the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Q ...
following
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure ...
's visit to Anantapur in July 1929 and dropped out of college in 1931. He was closely associated with the Youth League and participated in a student
satyagraha
Satyagraha ( sa, सत्याग्रह; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone ...
. In 1938, Reddy was elected Secretary of the
Andhra Pradesh Provincial Congress Committee, an office he held for ten years. During the
Quit India Movement, he was imprisoned and was mostly in jail between 1940 and 1945. Released in March 1942, he was arrested again in August and sent to the
Amraoti jail where he served time with activists
T Prakasam,
S. Satyamurti,
K Kamaraj
Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975, hinduonnet.com. 15–28 September 2001), popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras State (Tamil Nadu) ...
and
V V Giri till 1945.
Political career
Elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly in 1946 as a Congress representative, Reddy became secretary of the Congress' legislature party.
He was also a Member of the
Indian Constituent Assembly from Madras. From April 1949 to April 1951, he was the Minister for Prohibition, Housing and Forests of the
Madras State
Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...
.
Reddy lost the 1951 election to the
Madras Legislative Assembly to the
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
leader
Tarimela Nagi Reddy.
Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra State
In 1951, in a closely contested election, he was elected President of the
Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee
The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) is the state unit of Indian National Congress for the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The APCC has its headquarters at Andhra Ratna Bhawan, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. The APCC is responsible for C ...
defeating
N G Ranga.
When the
Andhra State was formed in 1953, T. Prakasam became its Chief Minister and Reddy became the
deputy.
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh (1956–60, 1962–64)
After the formation of the state of
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...
by incorporating
Telangana
Telangana (; , ) is a state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the eleventh-largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of and ...
with the Andhra State, Reddy became its first Chief Minister from 1 November 1956 to 11 January 1960. He was Chief Minister for a second time from 12 March 1962 to 20 February 1964, thus holding that office for over five years. Reddy was
MLA from
Sri Kalahasti
Srikalahasti is a holy town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the revenue division of Srikalahasti mandal & Srikalahasti revenue division. It is a part of Tirupati Urban Development Authority, wh ...
and
Dhone respectively during his stints as Chief Minister. The
Nagarjuna Sagar
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is a masonry dam across the Krishna River at Nagarjuna Sagar which straddles the border between Nalgonda district in Telangana and Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh. The dam provides irrigation water to the Nalgonda, Sur ...
and
Srisailam
Srisailam is a census town in Nandyal district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Srisailam mandal in Atmakur revenue division. It is located about from the district headquarters Nandyal, from Kurnool, ...
multipurpose river valley projects were initiated during his tenure. The
Government of Andhra Pradesh later renamed the Srisailam project to Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Sagar in his honour.
The Congress governments under Reddy placed emphasis on
rural development
Rural development is the process of improving the quality life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas.
Rural development has traditionally centered on the exploitation of ...
, agriculture and allied sectors.
The shift towards industrialisation remained limited and was largely driven by the
central government's investments in large
public sector enterprises in the state. Reddy's first term as Chief Minister ended in 1960 after he resigned on being elected
President of the Indian National Congress. In 1964, he resigned voluntarily following unfavourable observations made against the
Government of Andhra Pradesh by the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in the Bus Routes Nationalisation case.
Congress President (1960–62) and Union Minister (1964–67)
Reddy served thrice as President of the Indian National Congress at its
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
,
Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar is a city in the Bhavnagar district of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, a state of India. It was founded in 1723 by Bhavsinhji Takhtasinhji Gohil (1703–1764). It was the capital of Bhavnagar State, which was a princely state befo ...
and
Patna
Patna (
), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...
sessions during 1960 to 1962.
At the Congress session at Goa in 1962, Reddy's speech stating India's determination to end the
Chinese occupation of Indian territory and the irrevocable nature of the
liberation of Goa was enthusiastically received by attendees. He was thrice member of the Rajya Sabha.
From June 1964, Reddy was
Union Minister of Steel and Mines in the
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White R ...
government. He also served as
Union Minister of Transport,
Civil Aviation
Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...
,
Shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ex ...
and
Tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...
from January 1966 to March 1967 in Indira Gandhi's Cabinet.
Speaker of the Lok Sabha (1967–69)
In the general elections of 1967, Reddy was elected to the Lok Sabha from
Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh. On 17 March 1967, Reddy was elected Speaker of the Fourth Lok Sabha becoming only the third person to be elected Speaker of the house during their inaugural term. To emphasize the independence of the Speaker's office, Reddy resigned from the Congress Party.
His term as Speaker was marked by several firsts including the admission of a
No-Confidence Motion on the same day as the President's address to a joint session of Parliament,
the handing down of a sentence of imprisonment for
Contempt of the house
In countries with a parliamentary system of government, contempt of Parliament is the offence of obstructing the legislature in the carrying out of its functions, or of hindering any legislator in the performance of his duties.
Typology
The conce ...
and the setting up of the Committee on the Welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
During his term as Speaker a defamation suit filed against him by an MP resulted in the Supreme Court's ruling that parliamentarians had complete freedom of speech in the House and that the courts had no say in such matters. Reddy described his role as being the 'watchman of the Parliament'. He however had several hostile encounters with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the House that proved costly when he became, two years later, the Congress Party's nominee to succeed Zakir Hussain as president.
Presidential election of 1969
In 1969, following President
Zakir Hussain's death, the Congress party nominated Reddy, a member of its Syndicate faction, as candidate for president although Prime Minister Indira Gandhi opposed him. She was forced to accept Reddy as the Congress party's official candidate and feared his election would allow the Syndicate to expel her from office. She asked Congress legislators to "vote according to their conscience" rather than blindly toe the Party line, in effect giving a call to support the independent candidate V V Giri.
In a closely fought election held on 16 August 1969, V V Giri emerged victorious, winning 48.01 per cent of the first preference votes and subsequently getting a majority on counting the second preference votes. In the final tally, Giri had votes against the quota of votes required to be elected president and Reddy had votes.
The election led to much discord within the Congress Party and culminated in the historic split of 1969 and the subsequent rise of Indira Gandhi in Indian politics.
Subsequently, Reddy, who had resigned as Speaker of the Lok Sabha to contest the election, retired from active politics and moved back to Anantapur where he took to farming.
Return to active politics (1975–82)
In response to
Jayaprakash Narayan
Jayaprakash Narayan (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), popularly referred to as JP or ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian independence activist, theorist, socialist and political leader. He is remembered for le ...
's call for a
Total Revolution
The JP movement also known as Bihar Movement was a political movement initiated by students in the Indian state of Bihar in 1974 and led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP, against misrule and corruptio ...
, Reddy emerged from his political exile in 1975. In January 1977, he was made a member of the Committee of the
Janata Party
The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nat ...
and in March, he fought the
General Election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
from the
Nandyal (Lok Sabha constituency) in Andhra Pradesh as a Janata Party candidate. He was the only non-Congress candidate to be elected from Andhra Pradesh.
The Congress Party led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was defeated, ending 30 years of Congress rule in India and a five party coalition with Morarji Desai as its leader came to power.
Reddy was unanimously elected Speaker of the Sixth Lok Sabha on 26 March 1977. However he resigned a few months later to contest in the presidential elections of July 1977.
Reddy's second term as Speaker lasted three months and 17 days and remains till date the shortest tenure for anyone to have held that post.
Presidential election of 1977
The presidential election of 1977 was necessitated by the death in office of the incumbent
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Although Prime Minister
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...
wanted to nominate danseuse
Rukmini Devi Arundale
Rukmini Devi Arundale (née Shastri; 29 February 1904 – 24 February 1986)Sharma, Shoba and Gangadean, Ashok (January 31, 2004 Naatya.org. Retrieved on 10 December 2018. was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer of the Indian c ...
for the post, she turned down the offer. Reddy was elected unopposed, the only President to be elected thus, after being unanimously supported by all political parties including the opposition Congress party. At 64, he was the youngest person to be elected President of India until
Droupadi Murmu was
elected President in 2022. He was also the only serious presidential candidate to have contested twice – in 1969 against
V V Giri and in 1977.
37 candidates had filed their nominations for the presidency of whom 36 were rejected by the returning officer. Following these disqualifications, Reddy remained the only validly nominated candidate in the fray which made elections unnecessary. Reddy thus became the first person to be elected President of India without a contest and remains the only President to have been elected unopposed.
President of India
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was elected on 21 July 1977
and was sworn in as the
sixth President of India on 25 July 1977. Reddy worked with three governments, with
Prime Ministers Morarji Desai,
Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi. Reddy announced, on the eve of India's thirtieth anniversary of Independence, that he would be moving out of the
Rashtrapati Bhawan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; originally Viceroy's House and later Government House) is the official residence of the President of India at the western end of Rajpath, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India. Rashtrapati Bh ...
to a smaller accommodation and that he would be taking a 70 percent pay cut in solidarity with India's impoverished masses.
Morarji Desai government (1977–79)
Relations between Reddy and Desai soon soured over the latter's promotion of his son, Kanti Desai, in politics and over Desai's communication with Chief Ministers Vengala Rao and Channa Reddy on the issue of land ceilings in Andhra Pradesh. Following mass defections from the Janata Party and from the cabinet, Morarji Desai's 30-month-old government ended in July 1979 after he handed in his resignation to Reddy before a no-confidence motion could be tabled against his government in Parliament. Reddy's actions following Desai's resignation have been much debated. His decision to accept Desai's resignation before an alternative government created a ministerial vacuum in the executive according to
H. M. Seervai.
The faction of the Janata Party supporting Desai continued to have the support of 205 MPs as opposed to Charan Singh's 80 MPs.
Reddy used
presidential discretion in choosing Charan Singh as the next Prime Minister over a contending claim from
Jagjivan Ram, the leader of the Janata Party.
Charan Singh government (1979)
Following Desai's resignation and the fall of the
Janata government
The premiership of Morarji Desai extended from 24 March 1977 to 15 July 1979. In the 1977 Indian general election Morarji Desai led the Janata Party to victory against the Congress party. Upon taking office, Morarji Desai became the first Indian ...
headed by him, Reddy appointed Charan Singh as Prime Minister. This was on the condition that he should prove his majority on the floor of the House before the end of August. Singh was sworn in on 28 July 1979 but never faced Parliament to prove his majority when Reddy convened it on 20 August. Reddy had appointed him Prime Minister since he had produced a letter claiming to have a parliamentary majority with the support of the opposition Congress Party led by his rival, the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In return for her support, Gandhi demanded that a law establishing special courts to try her and her son
Sanjay Gandhi be repealed – a proposition that was unacceptable to Charan Singh.
Gandhi therefore withdrew her support, forcing Singh to resign. His government lasted 24 days and he never faced Parliament.
The convention of appointing a Prime Minister in a hung House but with conditions on time to prove majority was later adopted by President
R Venkataraman
Ramaswamy Venkataraman (, 4 December 191027 January 2009) was an Indian lawyer, Indian independence activist and politician who served as a Union Minister and as the eighth president of India.
Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Tan ...
.
Following Charan Singh's resignation, Reddy summoned
Chandrashekhar and Jagjivan Ram to Rashtrapati Bhavan to look into the possibility of forming an alternate government. Reddy, convinced that they would not be able to form one, accepted Singh's advice and dissolved Lok Sabha, calling for
a mid term election.
Singh was asked to continue as the
caretaker prime minister till a new government was sworn in after the election. Reddy's decision was met with angry denunciations and protests by members of the Janata Party who even threatened to have him impeached. Although heading a caretaker government, Singh proposed as many as seven
ordinances on a broad range of matters from effecting changes in company law, providing state funding of elections and reservation of jobs for the
backward classes.
Reddy however refused to
promulgate the ordinances arguing that such momentous changes could not be made by a caretaker government.
Indira Gandhi's return to power (1980–82)
In the elections of 1980, Indira Gandhi's party the
Indian National Congress (I) returned to power by winning 351 seats in the Lok Sabha. Neither the Janata Party nor Charan Singh's Lok Dal won the 54 seats needed for recognition as the official opposition in Parliament. Indira was sworn in as Prime Minister by Reddy for what would become her last term in office in January 1980. Between 1980 and 1982 President Reddy led seven
state visits abroad, visiting the USSR, Bulgaria, Kenya, Zambia, the UK, Ireland, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Yugoslavia. At home, as president, he signed an
ordinance that gave the new government wide powers to imprison people for up to a year without trial under
preventive detention and ordered the imposition of
President's rule in nine opposition-ruled states on the advice of the government.
Later life and death
Reddy was succeeded as president by
Giani Zail Singh, who was sworn in on 25 July 1982. In his farewell address to the nation, Reddy criticised the failure of successive governments in improving the lives of the Indian masses and called for the emergence of a strong political opposition to prevent governmental misrule. Following his presidential term, the then
Chief Minister of Karnataka
The chief minister of Karnataka, formerly known as the chief minister of Mysore, is the chief executive officer of the government of the Indian state of Karnataka. As per the Constitution of India, the governor of Karnataka is the state's ''de ...
Ramakrishna Hegde invited Reddy to settle down in Bangalore but he chose to retire to his farm in Anantapur. He died of pneumonia in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
in 1996 at the age of 83. His ''
samadhi'' is at Kalpally Burial Ground, Bangalore. Parliament mourned Reddy's death on 11 June 1996 and members cutting across party lines paid him tribute and recalled his contributions to the nation and the House.
Reddy authored a book, ''Without Fear or Favour: Reminiscences and Reflections of a President'', published in 1989.
Commemoration
Sanjiva Reddy's birth centenary was celebrated in 2013 by the
Government of Andhra Pradesh with the concluding ceremony in
Anantapur being addressed by President
Pranab Mukherjee
Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indi ...
and with the Chief Ministers of
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...
and
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Kar ...
in attendance. The
Postal Department of India released a
commemorative stamp and
special cover in honour of Reddy on the occasion of his birth centenary.
In
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
, there is the Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy College of Education. As part of the centenary celebrations of his birth, the
Government of Andhra Pradesh has announced that it will rename the
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...
State Revenue Academy, Reddy's alma mater the Government Arts College and the
Government Medical College, Anantapur after the former president.
In the 1960s, when he was Union Minister for Mines, a statue of him had been unveiled at
Vijayawada
Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises N ...
by
K. Kamaraj
Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975, hinduonnet.com. 15–28 September 2001), popularly known as Kamarajar was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Madras State (Tamil Nadu) ...
, the then
president of the Congress Party, prompting Reddy to ask for its removal as he deemed the practice of erecting statues of people holding public office undesirable. A statue of Sanjiva Reddy, unveiled in 2005, stands at the
Andhra Pradesh Secretariat (now Telangana Secretariat) in Hyderabad.
In popular culture
''Neelam Sanjiva Reddy – President of India'' is a 1982
short documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
directed by Prem Vaidya & C. L. Kaul and produced by the
Films Division of India
The Films Division of India (FDI), commonly referred as Films Division, was established in 1948 following the independence of India. It was the first state film production and distribution unit, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcastin ...
, covering his term of presidency.
The character Mahendranath, Chief Minister of the fictional state of Afrozabad in former Prime Minister
P V Narasimha Rao's novel, ''
The Insider'', is based on Reddy, portraying his career in Andhra Pradesh and his political rivalry with
Kasu Brahmananda Reddy.
Explanatory notes
References
External links
President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy's broadcast to India on Republic Day, 1979 (Audio)
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy – The Office of Speaker Lok Sabha
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reddy, Neelam Sanjiva
1913 births
1996 deaths
India MPs 1967–1970
India MPs 1977–1979
Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh
People from Anantapur district
Presidents of India
Presidents of the Indian National Congress
Speakers of the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh
People from Rayalaseema
Secretaries-General of the Non-Aligned Movement
Indian Hindus
Indian National Congress (Organisation) politicians
Steel Ministers of India
University of Madras alumni
Chief ministers from Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress politicians
Bharatiya Lok Dal politicians
Members of the Cabinet of India
Deaths from pneumonia in India
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 1957–1962
Andhra Pradesh MLAs 1962–1967
Andhra movement