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Elective English–I

Notes Personal attacks

In spite of his leading role in the development of Indian nuclear programme, Kalam has
received criticism from many of his peers who claimed that he had “no authority” over nuclear
science. Homi Sethna, a chemical engineer criticised Kalam claiming that Kalam had no background
in publishing articles in nuclear science, even in nuclear physics. Sethna maintained that
Kalam received his masters degree in aerospace engineering, which is a completely different
discipline from nuclear engineering, and what various universities awarded him for his achievements
had nothing to do with nuclear physics. Sethna, in his last interview, maintained that in the
1950s, Kalam had failed advanced physics courses during his college life and quoted “What
does he know (about [nuclear] physics)....?”, on the national television. Homi Sethna also
accused Kalam of using his Presidency to gain a national stature of a nuclear scientist.
Others felt that Kalam had never worked in any of the Indian nuclear power plants and had
no role in developing the nuclear weapon which was completed under Raja Ramanna. Kalam
worked as an aerospace engineer in an SLV project in the 1970s and from the 1980s onwards,
as a project director before he moved to Defence Research and Development Organisation,
Sethna concluded. The prestigious IISc,Bangalore rejected Kalam’s application as they felt that
he lacked scientific credentials.

In 2008, Indian media questioned his claims about his personal contributions to missile inventions
while working in a classified missile programme. Kalam had taken credit of inventing the
Agni, Prithvi and Aakash missile system. All of these were developed, researched and designed
by other scientists whereas Kalam was involved in getting the funds and other logistic tasks.
As a director of DRDO, a lot of credit had gone to Kalam. R. N. Agarwal, former director,
Advanced System Laboratory and former Programme Director of Agni missile was considered
to be the real architect behind the successful design of Agni Missile. In his own biography,
Kalam credited the development of Agni missile to Dr Ram Narayan Agarwal, an alumnus of
MIT. For the Prithvi missile project, he named Col VJ Sundaram as the brain behind this
project and for the Trishul missile, he gave credit to Commander SR Mohan. In 2006, senior
media correspondent Praful Bidwai, in The Daily Star, wrote that two aerospace projects,
Project Valiant and Project Devil, which were authorised by former Premier Indira Gandhi
under the directorship of Abdul Kalam, resulted in “total failure”. In the 1980s, these projects
were ultimately cancelled by the government under the pressure of the Indian Army. Kalam
was also criticised by civil groups over his stand on the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant,
where he supported setting up of the nuclear power plant and never spoke with the local
people. The protesters were hostile to his visit as they perceived to him to be a pro-nuclear scientist
and were unimpressed by the assurance provided by him on the safety features of the plant.
Frisking by American security authorities
Abdul Kalam was frisked at the JFK Airport in New York, while boarding a plane on 29
September 2011. He was subjected to “private screening” as he does not come under the
category of dignitaries exempt from security screening procedures under American guidelines.
He was frisked again after boarding the Air India aircraft with the US security officials asking
for his jacket and shoes, claiming that these items were not checked according to the prescribed
procedures during the “private screening”, despite protests from the airline crew confirming
him as India’s President. The incident was not reported until 13 November 2011. India threatened
retaliatory action as there was a “general sense of outrage” around the country. The Indian
Ministry of External Affairs protested over this incident and a statement by the ministry said
that the US Government had written a letter to Kalam, expressing its deep regret for the
inconvenience.

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