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Why Congress has no right to shed tears for Kalam

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Kumar Shakti Shekhar
Kumar Shakti ShekharJul 30, 2015 | 21:02

Why Congress has no right to shed tears for Kalam

Whenever a popular personality dies, a deluge of tributes pours in recalling the exceptional qualities of the deceased. The same happened when 11th President of India APJ Abdul Kalam died of a heart attack on July 27 while delivering a lecture in IIM, Shillong. As in all such cases, while most tributes were expressed directly from the heart out of love, affection and respect for Kalam, some were out of sheer courtesy and sounded hollow. The comments of several Congress leaders - particularly party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi - fall in the second category. Whatever they said should be viewed in the context of the kind of ties they shared with him in the past.

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Expressing her condolence, Sonia described Kalam as one of the greatest scientific minds, a scholar statesman and a true patriot, who inspired millions of young and old alike by his works and deeds. She said his contribution to Indian polity will remain unparalleled. "Dr Kalam inspired millions in the country and abroad and he even breathed his last while infusing a new zeal to young Indians in the course of his last address to IIM students. Indian National Congress stands with the entire Nation in condoling Dr Kalam's death," she said.

Rahul wrote on Twitter, "Dr Kalam was People's President, he was a President who had the ability to connect with India's youth."

Rahul may have called him "People's President" to be in tune with the general national sentiment but the kind of treatment they meted out to Kalam tells a different story. The Congress failed Kalam at least twice - in 2007 and again in 2012 - during the presidential elections. Kalam may have been chosen for the President's post during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government in 2002, but he was popular among all the political parties and had their support.

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The NDA had lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and Sonia was being tipped as Vajpayee's successor. But facing a formidable protest from the BJP as well as a powerful section within the Congress, she sprang a surprise by nominating Manmohan Singh to the prime minister's post. It is generally believed that Kalam had a role to play in discouraging Sonia to take up the PM's post. However, in his recent interview in India Today TV to Karan Thapar, Singh vehemently denied that Kalam expressed any hesitation in swearing in Sonia as the PM.

When time came in 2007 for the next presidential election, the Congress did not allow Kalam to run for the head of the state's post for the second consecutive term. This was despite the fact that besides the NDA, other political parties were also in support of Kalam's continuance. It was believed that Sonia's aversion to Kalam over his 2004 advice to the former had a major role to play in the denial of a second term to him.

Though it is the ruling party's prerogative to choose a candidate for the president's post, the Congress's choice of a less-deserving Pratibha Patil as Kalam's successor reeked of political vendetta. As is being described by all now, Kalam brought laurels to the chair he occupied and was the first President to open certain sections of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the public. In contrast, controversies dogged Patil even before she assumed the chair and also after demitting office.

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She made innumerable foreign trips accompanied by her relatives and promoted her son's political career by getting him a Congress ticket for 2009 Maharashtra assembly elections. After huge outcry she surrendered a piece of land meant for military war widows in Pune. She was accused of grabbing the piece of land for her post-retirement home.

Much to the embarrassment of the Congress, Patil was forced to return over 150 gifts which she had taken away with her to her hometown in Amrawati, Maharashtra, after her term got over. She had received these gifts as head of the state and which she should have returned to the government. The gifts included memento from US President Barack Obama, candle set received from UK prime minister, a gold medallion and a silver medallion from Nelson Mandela and a gift box from China. Most recently, even as the nation was mourning the death of Kalam, Patil was pressing for a government car to remain at her disposal, in violation of rules, despite the fact that she is paid for fuel for her private vehicle.

The Patil episode apart, the Congress had an opportunity to compensate for the blunder it committed in 2007 when West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav suggested Kalam's name for 2012 presidential election. Kalam had the support of the NDA too. He gave assent on one condition - that his election should be unanimous. However, it never materialised because the Congress fielded Pranab Mukherjee while Yadav backed out leaving Banerjee high and dry.

However, while the country did not lose as it got a veteran politician in Mukherjee as the President, the Congress missed a chance to make amends for the blunder it had committed in replacing "People's President" Kalam with Patil. And this will stick to the Congress and Patil for all times to come.

Last updated: August 03, 2015 | 11:05
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