As an author
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is lucky. Only he can get away with the “Dear
reader” tone and child-like style of writing and still sell a
million copies. It must be his never-say-die optimism and the
innocence he carries on his sleeves that make him the most popular
President ever.
But don't
underestimate him. He knows where to be tough and where to act like a
politician. These aspects of his persona are usually hidden behind
his perennial smile. But a lifetime spent hobnobbing with Indian
politicians, the wiliest in the business, has taught him a trick or
two.
His latest,
Turning Points, came out at a time when nominations for the
presidential election were up in the air with Kalam's name
prominently figuring in them. Mamata Bannerji and Mulayam Singh
Yadav proposing Kalam's name (along with Somath Chatterji's and
Manmohan Singh's) to Sonia Gandhi was one of the factors that forced
Sonia to formally announce Pranab Mukherji's choice as the Congress
candidate. It was known that Sonia did not want Pranab to be
President because he had a tendency to be independent.
The
politicking over the presidential candidates had revived memories of
Sonia Gandhi's widely believed ill-will for Kalam. From the time
Sonia opted out of the prime ministership following the 2004
election, there were reports that she had turned resentful of Kalam.
Some reports mentioned that Kalam had advised her that her foreign
origin might create problems for her becoming Prime Minister. No
confirmation of this came from any side, but the story of Sonia
falling out with Kalam had gained enough ground for the American
embassy in Delhi to report it to Washington as WikiLeaks revealed.
Since it
was publicised that Turning Points would deal with the
non-appointment of Sonia Gandhi, there was considerable interest in
the book. But those expect any information on the controversial
topic will be disappointed. For one thing, Kalam reaches the topic
leisurely, on the 134th page of a 176-page book. Twelve
chapters test the reader's patience, with Kalam talking about his
lectures, his talks with children, his suggestions on governance, his
poems, his list of good deeds, his visits abroad, his improvements to
the Mughal Gardens, the virtues of medicinal plants, rejuvenating the
heart of India, etcetera.
Finally he
came to “the three situations” that engaged his personal
feelings. Actually he listed four. The first was the cabinet decision
to dissolve the Bihar Assembly, a crisis that almost made him resign.
The second was the Office of Profits Bill which he returned for
reconsideration. The third was capital punishment cases on which he
found many unfair assumptions. And the fourth – at last – was
inviting the Congress to form the Government in 2004.
Kalam writes
on the subject without saying anything. He merely says that he was
ready to appoint Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister and that, to his
surprise, she put up Manmohan Singh for the job. So what about all
the circumstantial evidence supporting Sonia's hostility to Kalam,
what about the Congress cold-shouldering him, what about those
American diplomatic cables? Not a word. In fact his account is so
cheerful, about pleasantries being exchanged and so on, that we would
think the two were buddies. This is Kalam the politician at his
best.
Readers of
the book have to be satisfied with the few points he makes elsewhere
with firmness. When politics degrades into adventurism, he says,
ruination would follow. We must graduate from political politics to
developmental politics, he says. He also criticises Parliament for
not debating seriously practices that cannot meet the standards of
public probity.
In the
course of all this, Kalam gives unstinted praise to P.V. Narasimha
Rao. “I found Rao very perceptive on defence issues.... He had a
long-term vision of building robust systems of defence application”.
This is about a man who is a non-person in Sonia Gandhi's book and is
denied mention in official Congress records. So now we can guess at
least one reason for Sonia's dislike of Kalam.