A MAN OF SIMPLE PRINCIPLES
Door Darshan Podhigai, a Tamil Language Broadcast
Service telecast an interview with Mr P M Nair, retired IAS officer, Secretary
to the Indian President Dr. Abdul Kalam, who authored a book titled "The Kalam
Effect."
This post is an extract from that interview.
Dr Kalam used to receive costly gifts whenever he went
abroad as it is customary for many nations to give gifts to the visiting Heads
of State. Refusing the gift would become an insult to the nation and an
embarrassment for India. So, he received them and on his return, Dr Kalam asked
the gifts to be photographed, catalogued and handed over to the Archives.
Afterwards, he never even looked at them. He did not
take even a pencil from the gifts received when he left Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
In 2002, the year Dr Kalam took over, the Ramadan month
came in July-August. It was a regular practice for the President to host an
iftar party. Dr Kalam asked Mr Nair why he should host a party to people who
are already well fed and asked him to find out how much would be the cost. Mr
Nair told it would cost around Rs. 22 lakhs.
Dr Kalam asked him to donate that amount to a few
selected orphanages in the form of food, dresses and blankets. The selection of
orphanages was left to a team in Rashtrapathi Bhavan and Dr Kalam had no role
in it. After the selection was made, Dr Kalam asked Mr Nair to come inside his
room and gave him a cheque for Rs 1 lakh. Dr Kalam, a devout Muslim did not
have Iftar parties in the years in which he was the President.
He said that he was giving some amount from his
personal savings and this should not be informed to anyone. Mr Nair was so
shocked that he said "Sir, I will go outside and tell everyone . People
should know that here is a man who not only donated what he should have spent
but he is giving his own money also".
Dr Kalam did not like "Yes Sir" type of
people. Once when the Chief Justice of India had come and on some point Dr
Kalam expressed his view and asked Mr Nair, "Do you agree?" Mr Nair
said " No Sir, I do not agree with you". The Chief Justice was
shocked and could not believe his ears. It was impossible for a civil servant
to disagree with the President and that too so openly. Mr Nair told him that
the President would question him afterwards why he disagreed and if the reason
was logical 99% he would change his mind.
Dr Kalam invited 50 of his relatives to come to Delhi
and they all stayed in Rashtrapathi Bhavan. He organised a bus for them to go
around the city which was paid for by him. No official car was used. All their
stay and food was calculated as per the instructions of Dr Kalam and the bill
came to Rs 2 lakhs which he paid. Such a gesture was unprecedented in the
history of this country.
Dr Kalam's elder brother stayed with him in his room
for one entire week as he wanted his brother to stay with him. When he left, Dr
Kalam wanted to pay rent for that room also. Imagine the President of a country
paying rent for the room in which he is staying.
This was any way not agreed to by the staff who thought
the honesty was getting too much to handle!!!.
When President Kalam was to leave Rashtrapathi Bhavan
at the end of his tenure, every staff member went and met him and paid their
respects. Mr Nair went to him alone as his wife had fractured her leg and was
confined to bed. Dr Kalam asked why his wife did not come. He replied that she
was in bed due to an accident.
Next day, Mr.Nair saw lot of policemen around his house
and asked what had happened. They said that the President of India was coming
to visit him in his house. He came and met his wife and chatted for some time. Mr
Nair says that no president of any country would visit a civil servant's house
and that too on such a simple cause.
I thought I should give the details as many of you may
not have seen the telecast and so it may be useful.
The younger brother of APJ Abdul Kalam runs an umbrella repairing shop. When Mr. Nair met him during Kalam’s funeral, he touched his feet, in token of respect for both Mr. Nair and Brother.
Such information should be widely shared on social
media as mainstream media will not show this because it doesn't carry the
so-called TRPs, unlike Trump.
The property left behind by Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam was
estimated:
He owned
- 6 pants(2 DRDO uniforms)
- 4 shirts(2 DRDO uniforms)
- 3 suits (1 western, 2 Indian)
- 2500 books
- 1 flat (which he has donated)
- 1 Padmashri
- 1 Padmabhushan
- 1 Bharat Ratna
- 16 doctorates
- 1 website
- 1 twitter account
- 1 email id
He didn't have any TV, AC, car, jewellery, shares, land
or bank balance.
He had even donated the last 8 years' pension towards
the development of his village.
He was a real patriot and true Indian. So radically
different from narcissistic and apathetic leaders around the world.
RIP Dear Dr Kalam
