Legacy of India’s ‘Missile Man’
NEW DELHI— A.P.J. Abdul Kalam did so much to advance India’s nuclear program that he earned a striking nickname — “the Missile Man of India” — and became one of his country’s most beloved figures.
Kalam, India’s 11th president, died this week after collapsing at an event where he was to deliver a lecture. He was 83. The cause was cardiac arrest, doctors told NDTV, an Indian news channel.
An ardent nationalist, Kalam was embraced by both the left-leaning Indian National Congress party and the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party. His death brought an outpouring of mourning from across the ideological spectrum at a time of intense political polarization in India.
Born into a humble South Indian family — his father rented a boat to fishermen working the strait between India and Sri Lanka — Kalam was singled out as a promising student and went on to study aeronautics.
A practising Muslim, he involved himself in the country’s broader culture, studying Indian classical music and, a biographer said, committing to memory sections of the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s most sacred texts.
“My mind is filled with so many memories, so many interactions with him,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter. “Dr. Kalam enjoyed being with people; people and youngsters adored him. He loved students and spent his final moments among them.”
A similar tribute came from P. Chidambaram, a prominent leader in the Indian National Congress and sharp critic of the current government. “In recent history, only a few had endeared themselves to the young and old, poor and the rich, and to people belonging to different faiths,” he wrote of Kalam.
Kalam’s celebrity could be traced to 1998, when India detonated five nuclear devices in a matter of days in the country’s northwestern desert, to widespread international condemnation.
Described at the time as an “impish, shaggy-haired bachelor” of 66, he was one of the most exuberant boosters of the country’s nuclear program. In the years leading up to the tests, he was so frustrated with the government’s reluctance to approve them that he threatened to leave his post.
He used the spotlight to urge India to build up its military strength and to free itself from the threat of domination by outside forces.
“For 2,500 years India has never invaded anybody,” he said at a news conference after the tests. “But others have come here. So many others have come.”