Even in death, he is surrounded by students

Hours before Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s mortal remains arrived in Rameswaram, students of Parvathavarthini Girls Higher Secondary School were busy pasting his picture at the entrance. Students also took out a procession at Akkalmadam holding banners aloft celebrating the former President’s life.

At the open ground near the town’s bus terminus, where the former President’s body was kept for the public to pay homage, college goers throng with black ribbons pinned to their shirts waiting to attend his funeral on Thursday.

As in life, Dr Kalam has been surrounded by students, one section of the society that he managed to inspire.

The thrill of discovering ideas and the no-frills positivity the former President exuded seem to have drawn the youth, whose potential he clearly recognised.  “He has inspired me; I haven’t met him before and this is how the first meeting is going to be,” said Nandakumar, a third year engineering student at Rajalakshmi Engineering College in Chennai. Thousands of students like Nandakumar and his batch-mate Kishore are expected to arrive in Rameswaram to attend Dr Kalam’s funeral.

What eminent Tamil poet-lyricist Vairamuthu said on Wednesday – “The real tribute to Kalam should not be in floral arrangements; it should be in realising his visions for this country” – is echoed in the words of many students as they remember the People’s President.  Ashwin, a class seven student, however, sums up the admiration with unaffected clarity: “He spoke normally, like someone who cares and wants us to do well; and I want to do well.”

‘Canard being spread’
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday dismissed as “canard” former President, the late A P J Abdul Kalam’s much speculated reservations against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi becoming Prime Minister after the 2004 general elections.

“This is a canard that is being spread... It is all rubbish,” Singh said in an interview to Karan Thapar on India Today TV.

Singh was replying to questions on Kalam having reservations about Gandhi. “Kalam never questioned who will be the person whom he will swear-in. That is a privilege, even in our Constitution, of the party or person who claims majority support. Anything that was said (about Gandhi), I think is not true. These canards that were spread that he had hesitation in swearing in Mrs Gandhi... was never discussed in my presence,” the former prime minister said. Singh said that Kalam, who had sworn-in him as Prime Minister, was aware of the developments in the Congress party and the UPA in the run-up to the government formation then.

The controversy over Kalam’s purported reservations about Gandhi because of her foreign origin refused to die down even after the former President dismissed it in his book ‘Turning Points’ published in 2010.

Kalam had written that he was surprised at Singh’s nomination as Prime Minister. “This was definitely a surprise to me and the Rashtrapati Bhavan secretariat had to rework the letter appointing Dr Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister and inviting him to form the government at the earliest,” Kalam had written in the book.