Salam, Dr Kalam

It is rare for people who forge the nuts and bolts of the war machine to get a civilian award. Naturally, there is some debate over whether...

It is rare for people who forge the nuts and bolts of the war machine to get a civilian award. Naturally, there is some debate over whether the man responsible for weaponising India ought to get the Bharat Ratna. Kalam, a consistent believer in the value of effective deterrence, would probably retort that he develops weapons of mass destruction only in order to ensure peace. He could have opted to continue his work at the Indian Space Research Organisation, for whom he worked on the SLV-3 launch vehicle. He could have helped launch comsats and thereby seen to it that Doordarshan got to bore more people across the world. Instead, he chose to join the Defence Research and Development Organisation in 1982 in order to institute the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. At that time, his promise to put India in a position to export missile technology in two decades was widely derided as a Kalamity8217;. Today, when India covers every target of importance in Pakistan with the Prithvi missile, he gets a lot more respect.

In fact, Kalam8217;s Bharat Ratna is long overdue. Had it not been for him, India8217;s defence capabilities would have been seriously curtailed by the Missile Technology Control Regime embargo. It was only because Kalam anticipated technology transfer curbs and started developing indigenous resources that the missile programme is showing results. He was able to deliver because of his principal asset 8212; his ability to forge and give direction to teams. However, self-sufficiency, which Kalam grew to believe in when he worked under Vikram Sarabhai, is no longer a very fashionable objective. People certainly do not get awards for achieving it any more. And it is practically unknown for a mere artificer and armourer-turned-manager to get public recognition. Kalam8217;s work will not significantly contribute to the scientific literature. Neither is it likely to spark off progress in other scientific disciplines. What, then, has he done to deserve this award?

His achievement is significant, though unquantifiable. Pakistan has not waged open war with India for more than a quarter of a century, and some of the credit for the latter years of peace must go to Kalam. He has helped to ensure that in one of the most sensitive regions in the world, open conflict is no longer an option. More important, his defiance of MTCR strictures constituted a strong political statement to the missile-capable nations. It clearly put across the message that India could not be classed among the have-nots simply because it was import-dependent. It would always be able to look after its interests even if the import sources dried up. Recently, he proved the point again in a slightly different manner when India signed the convention on chemical weapons. Not one of the stockpiles which the government declared had ever been detected. To implement the Official Secrets Act with such efficacy in today8217;s India, which habitually leaks like a sieve, is no mean feat. So, though Kalam may not have contributed significantly to the quest for knowledge, his work has been invaluable to the security of the nation. It was Rajiv Gandhi who brought the Bharat Ratna into disrepute. Now, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam can be said to have redeemed it.