Bharat Ratna Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam Dies at 83: A major Setback
DELHI/GUWAHATI: Former President of India and rocket scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has died on Monday following a cardiac arrest at a function in IIM-Shillong.
He collapsed during a function at the institute and was rushed to Bethany Hospital in Shillong in a very critical condition.
Kalam, 84, was the 11th President of India who held the post from July 25, 2002 to July 25, 2007.
He was a renowned scientist and is considered to be the main brain behind India’s space launch vehicle (SLV) and missile programme.
Former Indian President
“It is a terrible loss to the country,” says A S Kiran Kumar, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. Kalam, who is the chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Technology, Isro’s education arm to groom new talent, was keen to know the progress on Isro’s rockets. Kalam was the project manager for the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV), among India’s first rockets, which is the precursor to the current generation of rockets such as PSLV and GSLV.
“He wanted an update on the GSLV MkIII and was very happy with the progress,” said Kumar, who met Kalam during his last visit to Bengaluru.
Former Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan said: “It is a great loss for the country and he was our colleague in ISRO from the 60s and he was a project director SLV III, the first Satellite Launch Vehicle project and that was the turning point for the country. And his connect with all the people in the organisation was something which is to be emulated and he was able to motivate everybody in the country. One single person who has taken all the people in a path which wanted for the future of the country – that is his greatness.”
Kota Harinarayana, chief designer of TEJAS, the light contact aircraft, said: “Kalam was always positive. He had no negative feelings with anybody.” Kalam was kota’s boss for seven years as Director General, Aeronautical Development Agency.
Kalam, 83, who reached Shillong via Guwahati in the morning, collapsed during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong (IIM-S) around 6:30 pm and rushed to the Bethany Hospital there.
Doctors at the hospital said he was brought dead around 7pm. “He had no pulse when he was admitted to the hospital. We can attribute his death to cardiac arrest,” a doctor said.
The hospital authorities, however, refrained from confirming the death until Meghalaya governor V Shanmughanathan and chief secretary PBO Warjri visited the hospital around 8pm.
“The body of the former president will be flown to New Delhi via Guwahati Tuesday morning,” Warjri said.
IIM-S officials said Kalam, who had tweeted in the morning about the function, showed no signs of illness after he reached the Meghalaya capital. “We had a packed house for the lecture on Liveable Planet Earth,” an official said.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in a poor Tamil Muslim family in Rameswaram. But he overcame all odds to study physics and aerospace engineering. He had been INSPIRING YOUTH of India.
With All respects we wish his Divine Soul REST IN PEACE………[email protected]
Source: TOI, HT,BS and other Agencies.
