The Hindu Business Line : No fading away for Kalam

The most popular ballad of the early 20th century hummed in US army barracks had a highly poignant line: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away!” The phenomenon most familiar to the Indians is that of persons pitch forked into prominence and throwing their weight about purely by virtue of the positions of power and authority they occupy for the nonce totally disappearing from public view once the chair is pulled away from them with all its frills and trappings. Often, it is only from occasional brief obituaries that we even come to know that they existed and were this and that during their life time.

But there are some — alas, getting to be too few in the Indian context, to the extent of deserving to be bemoaned as endangered species facing extinction — who have lent lustre and greatness to the positions they held, and live in people’s memory for their virtues, values and contributions to the raising of the quality of public life.

“India has had its Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajaji, Rajendra Prasad, Radhakrishnan, Ambedkar, Kamaraj, Zakir Hussein — all exemplars of the best that India stood for. It could be truly said of them Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit: They touched nothing without adorning it, without making it the richer for it.

Mr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who is laying down office as India’s President on July 24, in my view, just about makes it to the league. “Two small suitcases” are all that he has to show as his worldly possessions for his five years’ stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Almost Gandhian in austerity and simplicity, concerned about the lot of the poor and disadvantaged, with no thought but of the glory of his fellowmen, the country and the world, he is, in a sense, an anachronism in the self-aggrandising, sordid world of today.

He recalls to my mind Sir Henry Wotton’s lines on the Character of a Happy Life, describing a simple and honest soul “who hath his life from rumours freed, whose conscience is his strong retreat; whose state can neither flatterers feed, nor ruin make accusers great; who God doth late and early pray more of His grace than gifts to lend; and entertains the harmless day with a well-chosen book or friend; — This man is free from servile bands of hope to rise, or fear to fall; Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, he hath all.” One cannot be sure, but all the same it should cause no surprise if the political class felt acutely uncomfortable before him and liked nothing better than bidding him farewell, making a convenient excuse of the largely fortuitous and readily dispensable practice of not giving a second term to the incumbent President.

President Abdul Kalam has often expressed his desire to get back to teaching and research. No doubt, academic institutions all over India, if not some in other countries, would vie with each other to have him and bask in the distinction his presence would mean for them.

If I may, Mr President, (to adopt the happily-at-hand American style of addressing past holders of high offices), teaching is too easy a way of occupying yourself. You will only be lost among catacombs of mismanagement, ineptitude and corruption, too deep-rooted to be remedied by your efforts. Your forte is galvanising the younger generation and make of youth the precious human capital the nation sorely needs, the repository of the dreams, visions, ideals and aspirations for the nation’s future and the driving force of a vigorous movement to take India to the very pinnacle of achievement in every field of activity. Let this be your mission henceforth, however demanding of your energies the labour involved might be.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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