Former President APJ Abdul Kalam Dies at 83: Press Trust of India

[IND151]

RIP to him

 

[Aarush]

Dr. Abdul Kalam at his residence at 10 Rajaji Marg in New Delhi -

 

[Great Sachin]

He is hero of India.....most deserving for Bharat Ratna........India loves him...and continue love him

 

[being humane]

Respect SIR

 

[ranjeet]

Another point of view about Kalam Saab.

Kalam was no great man: Don't let news of death confuse you

As is usual when public personalities die, there is much outpouring of tributes after the passing of APJ Abdul Kalam. Newspaper headlines have described him as the "people's president" and "missile man". That a Muslim aerospace scientist fuelled the Hindu majoritarian state's quest for missiles and nuclear weapons obviously went down well with the nationalist crowd. Uncritical media attention and eulogising naturally followed.

Most accounts gloss over the fact that he got elected as president in July 2002 with the full backing of not only the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government but the Sangh Parivar as a whole plus the opposition Congress following his near complete silence over the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat earlier that year.

Last year Kalam visited the Nagpur headquarters of the RSS and paidtributes to its founder KB Hedgewar. Shashi Tharoor has describedhim as a "Muslim steeped in Hindu culture" who listened to "Carnatic devotional music every day". In other words, Kalam tried to out-mama the Mylapore mama, that quintessential Brahmin attending Tala-vadya-kaccheris in the Brahmin Bhadralok that is Mylapore in Chennai.

Earlier, he rose through the ranks of the Indian scientific establishment with his firm backing for hawkish causes such as nuclear weaponisation and missile development. There was a time when India held the high moral ground as a leading non-aligned country calling for nuclear disarmament. That went out the window when it carried out a nuclear test in 1974 during Indira Gandhi's prime ministership and again in 1998 under Vajpayee. While in 1974 Indian officials came up with the bizarre term "peaceful nuclear explosion", the gloves were off by the 1990s. Kalam was by then scientific adviser to the PM and head of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). No wonder he was adopted as a darling of the Hindutva right. He had already been conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

Kalam gave a clean chit to the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu despite a massive popular agitation against it and even after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A number of scholars and activists including Achin Vanaik, SP Udayakumar, Arundhati Roy, Kumar Sundaram and the recently deceased Praful Bidwai have been warning against the dangers stemming from nuclear plants, pointing out that countries such as Germany are phasing out nuclear power and turning successfully to renewable sources of energy.

The Narendra Modi government's highly questionable plan for the linking of river waters too won high praise from Kalam, who had first proposed it in 2002. Parineeta Dandekar of the South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), Ashish Kothari of the environmental activist group Kalpavriksh and others have shown why this is a daft idea. Quite apart from the ecological cost in terms of harmful effects on biodiversity, the project carries a massive human cost as well: it would entail the displacement of vast numbers of people, especially Adivasis inhabiting forested lands. Kalam was also a vocal supporter of the Vedanta aluminium project in Odisha, despite opposition to it from NGOs which point to the threat to the lives of the Dongria Kondh Adivasi people in the Niyamgiri area as well as the impact on wildlife.

Earlier this month, Kalam called for abolition of the death penalty, saying there was a "social and economic bias" in its application. He ought to have applied his mind in the case of Dhananjoy Chatterjee who was hanged during his presidency in 2004. Chatterjee was an impoverished watchman in a building where 18-year-old named Hetal Parekh was found dead in 1990. The watchman was convicted of rape and murder but a new analysis by two scholars with the Indian Statistical Institute that was released in time for the Law Commission's hearing on the death penalty on July 11 and released by the People's Union for Democratic Rights casts serious doubts over his guilt. The scholars, Debashish Sengupta and Prabal Chaudhury say "facts" were created to frame Chatterjee. From the trial courts upwards, including in the Supreme Court and President Kalam's office, no attention was paid to the shoddy investigation that had been carried out. Witnesses and recovered articles said to belong to Chatterjee or stolen by him were never subject to counter-examination. Ditto forensic evidence. The scholars allege police complicity in concocting circumstancial evidence, adding that the family's reasons for blaming Chatterjee were not examined.

If Kalam had any opinion on the hanging of the Kashmiri, Afzal Guru, he kept it to himself. The Supreme Court handed Guru - about whose unfair trial entire books have been written by the likes of Arundhati Roy and Philososophy professor Nirmalangshu Mukherji - the death sentence noting it was necessary to satisfy the "collective conscience" of the society. Kalam was equally silent on the moves to hang Yakub Memon.

It is for these reasons that the current excessive eulogising of Kalam comes across as a tad obscene.

 

[Hindustani78]

Last Updated: Tuesday, July 28, 2015 - 18:34
India has lost one of her greatest sons in Kalam: RSS | Zee News

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Tuesday condoled the demise of former President A P J Abdul Kalam and said in his passing away the country has lost one of her greatest sons.

In its condolence message, the RSS described Kalam as one of foremost scientists and a visionary who ignited innumerable minds, and said his life from obscurity as a small boy to the country's President was a tale of extraordinary courage, determination, perseverance and the desire to excel.

"While sharing the deep sorrow with the entire nation over his death, which is an unsurmountable loss to our country, we express our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family and pray almighty to bestow peace on the departed soul," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and general secretary Suresh (Bhayya) Joshi said in a statement.

They said Kalam, as a scientist, had made seminal contributions to the country's defence preparedness and as a statesman made 'Bharat' proud by enhancing the prestige of the President's office through his exemplary conduct of affairs.

"Dr Abdul Kalam's life, from obscurity as a small boy growing up in the temple city of Rameswaram to becoming Bharat's eleventh President, was a tale of extraordinary courage, determination, perseverance and the desire to excel."

"His life story is as well the story of our missiles, Agni, Prithvi, Aakash, Trishul and Nag, that have raised our nation as one of the missile powers of international reckoning. He, who had faith in Bharat's rich heritage and unswerving belief in our talented youth, wanted Bharat to emerge as a knowledge society and empowered nation," the RSS statement said.

Bhagwat also paid homage to the former President at his 10, Rajaji Marg residence, after Kalam's body was brought here today afternoon from Shillong, where he breathed his last yesterday. Bhagwat was accompanied by RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal at Kalam's residence.

In a separate message, RSS all-India prachar pramukh Manmohan Vaidya said, "APJ, the president of common man ignited minds of young India and gave them a dream to live for. May his soul rest in eternal peace."

PTI

 

[Levina]

Another point of view about Kalam Saab.

Kalam was no great man: Don't let news of death confuse you

As is usual when public personalities die, there is much outpouring of tributes after the passing of APJ Abdul Kalam. Newspaper headlines have described him as the "people's president" and "missile man". That a Muslim aerospace scientist fuelled the Hindu majoritarian state's quest for missiles and nuclear weapons obviously went down well with the nationalist crowd. Uncritical media attention and eulogising naturally followed.

Most accounts gloss over the fact that he got elected as president in July 2002 with the full backing of not only the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government but the Sangh Parivar as a whole plus the opposition Congress following his near complete silence over the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat earlier that year.

Last year Kalam visited the Nagpur headquarters of the RSS and paidtributes to its founder KB Hedgewar. Shashi Tharoor has describedhim as a "Muslim steeped in Hindu culture" who listened to "Carnatic devotional music every day". In other words, Kalam tried to out-mama the Mylapore mama, that quintessential Brahmin attending Tala-vadya-kaccheris in the Brahmin Bhadralok that is Mylapore in Chennai.

Earlier, he rose through the ranks of the Indian scientific establishment with his firm backing for hawkish causes such as nuclear weaponisation and missile development. There was a time when India held the high moral ground as a leading non-aligned country calling for nuclear disarmament. That went out the window when it carried out a nuclear test in 1974 during Indira Gandhi's prime ministership and again in 1998 under Vajpayee. While in 1974 Indian officials came up with the bizarre term "peaceful nuclear explosion", the gloves were off by the 1990s. Kalam was by then scientific adviser to the PM and head of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). No wonder he was adopted as a darling of the Hindutva right. He had already been conferred the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

Kalam gave a clean chit to the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu despite a massive popular agitation against it and even after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A number of scholars and activists including Achin Vanaik, SP Udayakumar, Arundhati Roy, Kumar Sundaram and the recently deceased Praful Bidwai have been warning against the dangers stemming from nuclear plants, pointing out that countries such as Germany are phasing out nuclear power and turning successfully to renewable sources of energy.

The Narendra Modi government's highly questionable plan for the linking of river waters too won high praise from Kalam, who had first proposed it in 2002. Parineeta Dandekar of the South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), Ashish Kothari of the environmental activist group Kalpavriksh and others have shown why this is a daft idea. Quite apart from the ecological cost in terms of harmful effects on biodiversity, the project carries a massive human cost as well: it would entail the displacement of vast numbers of people, especially Adivasis inhabiting forested lands. Kalam was also a vocal supporter of the Vedanta aluminium project in Odisha, despite opposition to it from NGOs which point to the threat to the lives of the Dongria Kondh Adivasi people in the Niyamgiri area as well as the impact on wildlife.

Earlier this month, Kalam called for abolition of the death penalty, saying there was a "social and economic bias" in its application. He ought to have applied his mind in the case of Dhananjoy Chatterjee who was hanged during his presidency in 2004. Chatterjee was an impoverished watchman in a building where 18-year-old named Hetal Parekh was found dead in 1990. The watchman was convicted of rape and murder but a new analysis by two scholars with the Indian Statistical Institute that was released in time for the Law Commission's hearing on the death penalty on July 11 and released by the People's Union for Democratic Rights casts serious doubts over his guilt. The scholars, Debashish Sengupta and Prabal Chaudhury say "facts" were created to frame Chatterjee. From the trial courts upwards, including in the Supreme Court and President Kalam's office, no attention was paid to the shoddy investigation that had been carried out. Witnesses and recovered articles said to belong to Chatterjee or stolen by him were never subject to counter-examination. Ditto forensic evidence. The scholars allege police complicity in concocting circumstancial evidence, adding that the family's reasons for blaming Chatterjee were not examined.

If Kalam had any opinion on the hanging of the Kashmiri, Afzal Guru, he kept it to himself. The Supreme Court handed Guru - about whose unfair trial entire books have been written by the likes of Arundhati Roy and Philososophy professor Nirmalangshu Mukherji - the death sentence noting it was necessary to satisfy the "collective conscience" of the society. Kalam was equally silent on the moves to hang Yakub Memon.

It is for these reasons that the current excessive eulogising of Kalam comes across as a tad obscene.

And the author of this article is an idiot.

 

[Hindustani78]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying his last respects to former President APJ Abdul Kalam at his residence at Rajaji Marg in New Delhi.

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar paying his last respects to former President APJ Abdul Kalam at his residence at Rajaji Marg in New Delhi.

Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik creates a sand sculpture to pay tribute to former President APJ Abdul Kalam, at Puri beach in Odisha.

The National Flag flies at half-mast at Rashtrapati Bhawan as a mark of respect to former President Abdul Kalam, on Tuesday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

Security personnel stand guard outside A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Scores of people wait outside Kalam's residence in New Delhi to pay their last respects. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik offers floral tributes at a special condolence meeting. By Special Arrangement

 

[Aarush]

 

[Hindustani78]

The last rites of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will be held in his native town Rameswaram as per the wishes of the family members. Pay your tributes to the 'people's President' here.

Kalam died after suffering a massive cardiac arrest during a lecture at the IIM-Shillong on Monday.

 

[Aarush]

The assignment which APJ Abdul Kalam could not give to IIM students | Zee News

Kolkata: Working tirelessly even on his last day, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had planned a surprise assignment for the students of IIM Shillong on finding innovative ways to end disruption in Parliament.

Kalam's close aide Srijan Pal Singh, who was with him on his last day, said while travelling from Delhi to Shillong they were discussing about disruptions in Parliament.

"He was very worried and said he had seen the tenures of many governments but disruption keeps on happening every time. He had told me to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students which would be given to them at the end of the lecture," Singh, who co-authored two books with Kalam, told a news agency from Shillong.

He said the former president wanted students to come up with three innovative ideas to make Parliament more productive and vibrant.

"We had also decided to include this topic of disruptions in Parliament into our next book 'Advantage India' which would be released in September-October. I'll do that now before the book comes into the market," the IIM Ahmedabad alumnus said.

When asked about Kalam's last wish, he said Kalam always wanted a billion smiles on a billion faces in the country.

"He wanted rural India to develop and also he kept on talking about youth empowerment. Now his ideas are more alive as the man who was leading it from the front is no more," he said.

The only regret the 'Missile Man' had in his life was not being able to provide facilities like 24-hour electricity to his parents during their lifetime

"That is I think one regret he always had in his life," Singh said.

 

[ranjeet]

People queued to pay their last respect to APJ Abdul Kalam in Delhi.

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Home Affairs

28-July, 2015 16:36 IST
Former President Dr. Kalam to be accorded State Funeral at Rameswaram on Thursday State Funeral of former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam will be held with full military honours on July 30, 2015 (Thursday) at 11 AM at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.

***

Students paying tribute to Dr Kalam
28 Jul, 2015
Students paying tribute to former President APJ Abdul Kalam in Mumbai.

children pay homage to APJ Abdul Kalam
28 Jul, 2015
School children hold candles as they pay homage to former president APJ Abdul Kalam at a school in Amritsar on July 28, 2015.

Condolence ceremony for Dr Abdul Kalam
28 Jul, 2015
School children form a missile during a condolence ceremony for former President APJ Abdul Kalam in Agartala, Tripura on July 28, 2015.

 

[Hindustani78]

The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Vice President, Shri Mohd. Hamid Ansari paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting, Shri Arun Jaitley paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Smt. Smriti Irani paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri Thaawar Chand Gehlot paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

 

[Hindustani78]

The Union Minister for Mines and Steel, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Minister of State for Commerce & Industry (Independent Charge), Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge) and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.

The Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge), Shri Sarbananda Sonowal paying homage at the mortal remains of the former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in New Delhi on July 28, 2015.