I told Atal Bihari Vajpayee to make Abdul Kalam the President: Chandrababu Naidu

Hyderabad: AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Tuesday that he had recommended the name of Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for President. Former UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu have made similar claims earlier.

In a condolence message released by the Chief Minister’s Office on Monday night, Mr Naidu said: “During the NDA rule in the country under Vajpayee’s Prime Ministership, we had collectively proposed his (Kalam’s) name for the country’s first citizen — that of the President.”

Naidu reiterated his claims on making Abdul Kalam the President at a condolence meeting by the AP government at the Secretariat.

Read: For Dr Abdul Kalam, deciding on death sentence was a difficult task

Paying tribute to Dr Kalam, Mr Naidu said he had also recommended the Bharat Ratna awardee for the Presidency to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Dr Kalam himself wrote about it in his book Turning points: A Journey Through Challenges, saying that he had received several calls when he was away, and one of them was from Mr Vajpayee.

“While I was waiting to be connected to the PM, Chandrababu Naidu, who was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, called me on my cellphone. He told me to expect an important call from the Prime Minister, adding, ‘Please do not say no’. While I was talking to Naidu, the call from Vajpayee materialised.”

Mr Vajpayee had then asked Dr Kalam to be President. Speaking at the condolence meeting, Mr Naidu said that Dr Kalam was his dear friend and one of the noblest human beings he had met.

Read: Abdul Kalam’s death: Reaching out to slum kids

He said that as a scientist, scholar, teacher and a mentor, Dr Kalam’s achievements were immeasurable and everyone should take him as an example. Mr Naidu said Dr Kalam spent his whole life on research and his life will inspire the youth.

He said that Dr Kalam had said that the government should not declare a holiday after his death and added that the real tribute to the late President would be in not taking a holiday and to work one hour more in a day. The AP government did not declare a holiday on Tuesday while Telangana government declared a holiday.

The Chief Minister recalled Dr Kalam’s gesture of setting aside protocol and visiting him in October 2003 at his residence soon after he survived the Alipiri blast. Mr Naidu noted that Dr Kalam had recently launched the primary sector mission in Anantapur.

Read: Tribute: Abdul Kalam, a President who loved cartoons

Andhra Pradesh works an hour extra

A large number of schools and educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh worked an extra hour discussing the life and times of former president Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. However, the Telangana State declared an official holiday and schools and educational institutions were shut across the ten districts of the state.