Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 18, 2002
By all accounts, the elevation of
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to the office of President of India originated in
an apparently innocuous manner in the unofficial backroom parleys between
political parties of both the ruling coalition and the opposition alliance.
The emissaries shuffled around the old tired names of tenacious aspirants,
none of whom truly inspired even his own promoters. The stage appeared
set for more sterile wrangling when the gods decided to stage their own
lila. Time aimed an inspirational moment with missile-like precision, and
the rest as they say, is History.
It is truly once in a blue moon
that a man refusing to fly an ordinary flight breaks through the barriers
of human limitation and fulfils the Icarus agenda of flying close to the
sun. As his wings are not made of wax, he can be expected to soar. Dr.
Kalam's rise from newspaper-hawking student, to brilliant scientist, to
President, is the stuff of dream and legend. Only recently on retiring
from government, he was subjected to the ignominy of being denied a faculty
position in an eminent national institution on petty bureaucratic grounds
- he didn't have a Ph.D. degree! Now he has been yanked out of relative
obscurity and bestowed with the nation's top job.
The story defies all stereotypes
and remains greater than the attempts to rationalize the unexpected by
dissecting the man in a bid to fit him into a comfortable pigeon-hole.
Mercifully the explanations have proved too inadequate to strip the event
of its awesome mystique, so its inspirational quality endures. At the end
of the day it remains a rare moment of beauty in the life of an otherwise
star-crossed nation, and as the poet Emerson wisely stated, beauty is its
own excuse for being.
Having said that, I would like to
share my reasons for appreciating Dr. Kalam's candidature, without I hope,
falling into the trap of trying to diminish his stature. Much of the endorsement
of his nomination has been of this genre, and I feel that there is a need
to set the record straight. There is at present a tangible undercurrent
of tension in media and political circles over the selection of Dr. Kalam
on two counts. One is that because he is a Muslim, it would be politically
incorrect to oppose his candidature, and the second is that he matches
the RSS-BJP stereotype of what a 'good Indian Muslim' should be. A national
daily has in fact lampooned Dr. Kalam on this count in an exceedingly crude
manner.
Most comments are unfair to Dr.
Kalam. As one engaged in the struggle to give the nation's civilizational
ethos its due place in public life, I must say that Hindus who applaud
his scholarship of the Gita and Hindu philosophy are missing the wood for
the trees. Indeed, this could prove counter-productive, as a man perceived
to be deviating so sharply from the norms of his community could easily
fail to inspire it to adopt him as a role model.
My point is that Dr. Kalam is not
great because he has mastered the Gita, but because he has, out of his
own intellectual and spiritual aspirations, embraced the whole of his country's
native genius. He has effortlessly rooted himself in its civilizational
ethos, and has broken ranks with his co-religionists in the sense that
he recognizes and appreciates his pre-Islamic past. Having drawn the waters
of this limitless reservoir to enrich his personal endeavours in his chosen
field, he has done himself and his nation proud.
The critical issue, therefore, is
reverence for a living tradition that goes back to the hoary past, not
the accident of being a scholar of the Gita. This means that Muslims who
are able to rise above the doctrine that all that is pre-Islamic is an
age of darkness, will free themselves from the fears and biases that make
them disdain the autochthonous culture and drive them to live in mental
and physical ghettoes. Dr. Kalam's erudition is something for Muslims to
ponder over with maturity and wisdom, but it is nothing for Hindus to gloat
over. Dr. Kalam is not a crude advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity or dialogue
or any other cliché; he is one of those unique eminences whose life
holds some lesson for each one of us.
Had the Congress Party had not become
so alienated from the Indian ethos as it has under its Northern Italian
leadership, it would not have gone into a blue funk on hearing of Dr. Kalam's
nomination. While the savvy Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh endorsed
the scientist instantly - he in fact conceived the idea, though he did
not pursue it - the Congress took two whole days before offering a graceless
acquiescence. As for the Left, it's a case of the blues, though I doubt
if even Harkishen Singh Surjeet quite knows why. Nor can I fathom why Capt.
Lakshmi Sahgal has agreed to needle the nation by contesting against a
far superior candidate.
I must add that I am absolutely
dismayed at the conduct of the outgoing President. Mr. Narayanan's desire
for a second term was unreasonable in view of his tense relationship with
the ruling coalition and the embarrassing moments he gave it on a number
of sensitive issues. His attempt to foist Mrs. Sonia Gandhi on an unwilling
nation by twice giving her time to rustle up a parliamentary majority through
horse-trading was reprehensible, and unlikely to be forgotten. While it
is hardly surprising that the Congress should feel that only a 'committed'
President could help it in a crisis, Mr. Narayanan should have noted the
arithmetic of the electoral college and accepted the hints about his advanced
age and poor health.
As it happens, he did the exact
opposite. He allowed the Congress to project him as its sole candidate
for so long that the party gave no serious thought to any other name. Then,
he received the various Left leaders and allowed them to persuade (sic)
him to stand for another term. But what is truly breathtaking is that even
after the Prime Minister personally informed him that the NDA would not
support him, he gave appointments to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and other Left leaders
to discuss the presidential election. It was only when Dr. Kalam's nomination
sent a wave of euphoria around the country that Prof. Harold Laski's protégé
finally understood the grammar of politics.
As for the ruling party, the Prime
Minister must realize that he cannot possibly ask the nation to move from
the sublime to the ridiculous - which is what the choice of Bhairon Singh
Shekhawat as Vice President would amount to. Has-been politicians who never
delivered anything to the party or the people during their tenure, and
obstructed the rise of a new generation of leaders so that the party itself
remained stunted in state after state, should be kept in the closet, not
honoured with high office. Mr. Vajpayee must be aware that Dr. Kalam's
appointment has generated so much excitement among the people because he
is a man who dreams big - of a self-confident, highly developed, and great
India. His deputy should be able to match up to his vision.
