Missile man of India comes to London
He is one of the most prominent of those Indians who by their stature have produced the enthusiasm that we rarely see. It is said that he came to Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s House) with two suitcases and left with the same two suitcases. Yes, indeed we are talking of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India and popularly known as the The Missile Man of India for playing an essential role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998.
Addressing a conference at The Nehru Centre on “Is a New Global Order Emerging? The Potential Role of India”, organised by FICCI and GOPIO, Dr. Kalam commended the work done by the Indian diasporic community throughout the world. He said “Immigrant population has made a huge contribution to social and economic sphere of India.”
He said India, post independence, has slowly been moving ahead with peace and prosperity. He also mentioned that India’s participation in events like the G20 and IPL have further registered an emergence of a new global order. I was very curious to know his views about India’s first unmanned moon mission and the criticisms made by the West. I thus asked him what were his thoughts on this. He very interestingly mentioned that Indian satellites have been society bound. Well taking the example of EDUSAT, which was India’s first educational satellite and was built exclusively for serving the educational sector.
On the issue of young people that he holds close to his heart, he said no matter what the problem is, one should never let the problem become the captain, instead one should be the captain of the problem and defeat it immediately. He said the young generation today is not scared of entering politics and it is good to see that many want to bring about a change in the current system. He said young people all over the world are the driving force to ensure that no country falls into the trap of problems.
He will be speaking at various occasions in London and will also be visiting Belfast where he has kindly accepted an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University, Belfast.