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NYTimes.com Article: Nuclear Scientist, 70, a Folk Hero, Is Elected India's President by alvi_saima 19 July 2002 16:17 UTC |
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This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by alvi_saima@yahoo.com. Nuclear Scientist, 70, a Folk Hero, Is Elected India's President July 19, 2002 By DAVID ROHDE NEW DELHI, July 18 - An exuberant and eccentric 70-year-old scientist who is considered the father of India's nuclear missile program was overwhelmingly elected president today by legislators. The vote for the largely ceremonial office reflected both the growing disdain of the country for professional politicians and its ambition to be taken seriously on the world stage. The scientist, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, a boatman's son who rose to become a nuclear folk hero in India, emerged as the surprise candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling Hindu nationalist party, only a month ago. He won nearly 90 percent of the votes cast by legislators. A best-selling author, he functions as a kind of nationalist self-help guru who vows to use science, technology and nuclear and space research to allow India to develop, assert itself and achieve greatness. He has emerged as a cult figure since he helped oversee India's successful nuclear tests in 1998. His latest book, "Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India," blares his can-do, nationalist message. "India has to be transformed into a developed nation," Dr. Kalam said after being elected today, "a prosperous nation and a healthy nation, with a value system." Dr. Kalam, an ethnic Tamil, will be the third Muslim to serve as president of Hindu-dominated India. Nominating him allowed the ruling party to bolster its secular credentials after being condemned for allowing Hindu extremists to kill hundreds of Muslims in Gujarat earlier this year. But critics question Dr. Kalam's scientific credentials, say he has never truly fought for Muslim causes and call him a political novice unprepared for Indian political combat. Leftists accuse him of nuclear jingoism and challenge his support for vast high-technology projects, like an unmanned Indian mission to the moon, which they contend will waste millions. "His scientific ideology is more of society being at the disposal of science," said Sita Ram Yechury, a spokesman for the leftist parties opposing Dr. Kalam, "rather than science being at the disposal of society." But such criticism is faint in a country where Dr. Kalam has become a mythic figure. A bachelor, vegetarian and amateur musician and poet, Dr. Kalam brings an unorthodox style to the 340-room presidential palace. Until now, he has professed to live the life of an ascetic, reading poetry and strumming the vina, a traditional guitarlike instrument, in his spare time. His trademark is the long mop of gray hair that flops down each side of his face. Dr. Kalam's best-selling autobiography, "Wings of Fire," and a children's book, "Eternal Quest," recount his life and times. Born on Oct. 15, 1931, in Rameswaram, a spit of land that juts out between Madras and Sri Lanka, he excelled in school while selling newspapers to support his father. The idyllic account of his life that follows features inspirational verse from the Koran, the Bhagavad-Gita, T. S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Kalam himself and others. It describes Muslims and Hindus growing up in harmony, and teachers and family members helping him get into boarding school and college. Dr. Kalam went on to study aeronautical engineering at the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology. He never received a Ph.D., but he is always referred to as "doctor" in India, having received 30 honorary doctorates and the country's three highest civilian honors. His only visit to the United States came in 1963, when he spent about five months touring NASA rocket centers. Throughout his career, Dr. Kalam, who declined a request for an interview, worked tirelessly to ensure that Indian technology could succeed, according to Dr. K. Kasturirangan, now the head of India's space program and a colleague of Dr. Kalam's for 35 years. "He is a humble, he lives a spartan life," Dr. Kasturirangan said, listing the qualities that attract an Indian public weary of political corruption. "He is deeply committed to any cause he undertakes in life." After working on the team that developed India's first satellite vehicle in the 1970's, Dr. Kalam ran a program that developed five missiles to counter Chinese and Pakistani systems in the 1980's. When the Bharatiya Janata Party took office in 1998, he served as scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defense and lobbied for nuclear tests. Indian tests that year set off an international outcry and an arms race with Pakistan. But Dr. Kalam argues that nuclear weapons are a deterrent that helped prevent another war between India and Pakistan this spring. Dr. Kalam, who takes office July 25, will have limited power under India's parliamentary system. Expected to serve as an evenhanded arbiter, the president breaks ties in Parliament, can call elections and can decide which party can form a government. Dr. Kalam will also have the bully pulpit to argue for development projects that he says will eliminate poverty in India by 2020. Groups he helped establish have developed prosthetic limbs from lightweight materials from the missile programs. Another distributes information on weather, crops and genetically altered farm animals to farmers. Opponents may continue to attack him as a yes man for Hindu nationalists, a proponent of militarism and creator of an Indian military-industrial complex. But his upbeat message is likely to continue to drown them out. "Nations consist of people," his new book begins. "And with their effort, a nation can accomplish all it could ever want." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/19/international/asia/19INDI.html?ex=1028095053&ei=1&en=9a08a896de4e8255 HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
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