APJ Kalam�s funeral tomorrow
AGENCIES
The body of Indias former president and prominent scientist APJ Abdul Kalam, who passed away in Shillong on Monday evening, was brought back to New Delhi yesterday afternoon, report agencies. Kalams mortal remains, wrapped in the Indian flag, were put on a gun carriage and taken to his official residence at Rajaji Marg from Palam airport. Dignitaries and the general public lined up to pay their last respects to the popular former president at his home till late yesterday.
Kalams funeral will be held tomorrow in Rameswaram, his birth place in Tamil Nadu, with full military honours. Home Ministry sources said Kalam would be given a state funeral and his last rites would be held at 11 am on Thursday.
Earlier yesterday, President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the three military service chiefs paid homage to the former president at the technical area of Palam airport as his body returned to Delhi on board a special Indian Air Force aircraft around 12.15pm. India is observing a seven-day national mourning for Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, who served as Indias 11th president between 2002 and 2007.
BSS adds: The Indian High Commission in Dhaka will open a condolence book today for people to pay their last respects to the former president.
The condolence book will be kept on the premises of the Indian High Commission at House No 2, Road 142, Gulshan 1 until tomorrow.
Kalam, an aerospace scientist who was considered the chief architect of Indias missile programme, died after suffering a massive heart attack in Shillong, Meghalaya at the age of 83.
Kalam collapsed during a lecture at a management institute in the northeastern Indian city of Shillong, and was declared dead on arrival by doctors at Bethany Hospital.
Born to a poor family of boatman in Rameswaram, a coastal town in southern Tamil Nadu state on October 15, 1931, Kalam sold newspapers as a child to help his family financially.
He rose through the ranks to become a top scientist at Indias defence research organisation, where he worked for four decades helping to develop the countrys home grown weapons programme, earning him the moniker Indias missile man. He also played a pivotal role in Indias nuclear weapons tests in 1998.
After his presidential term, Kalam returned to academics and regularly delivered lectures at top Indian universities. He also published a best seller autobiography entitled Wings of fire in 1999.
On leaving the splendour of the 360-room Rashtrapati Bhavan presidential palace behind him, Kalam moved into a tiny, seemingly uninviting guesthouse hidden away in Delhi Cantonment.
While addressing university students at an event in the Bangladeshi capital on October 17 last year, he highlighted the negative aspects of nuclear proliferation, saying that when nuclear energy is used for destructive purposes, it is extremely disastrous. That is why India, Pakistan and all countries of the world should work together towards a world free of nuclear arms, he said while exchanging views with the students at the programme, organised by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
What should a young persons philosophy of life be? Abdul Kalam asked the audience. Repeat after me: I will dream big. It is a crime to have small goals. I will continuously acquire knowledge. I will be the master of solving problems. I will solve problems. That is how I will be successful. That will be my aim. On Monday, President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina expressed deep shock at the death of Abdul Kalam.
In a condolence message, Hamid said the people of the world lost a great scientist at the demise of APJ Abdul Kalam.
