Discord brews over Dr Kalam’s legacy

Chennai: Less than a week after former President Abdul Kalam’s body was laid to rest, a discord seems to be brewing among those closely associated with him in the recent past, over his legacy.

On Wednesday, office of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, New Delhi, released a press statement disassociating itself from Srijan Pal Singh, who was with Kalam at his time of death. According to Kalam’s advisor Ponraj, Singh, an IIM graduate, happened to be with Kalam because the former President took him along as he was going to a IIM in Shilong, where he died.

Within a few hours of his death, Singh announced on the official FB page of Abdul Kalam which has huge fan following, that ‘the page is dedicated to your immortal memories…. this account will now reflect thoughts of Dr. Kalam and his lessons and missions. Miss you saab’.

The provocation for the statement seems to be the fact that Singh had literally taken over Kalam’s Facebook account and Twitter handle and started updating it as his own accounts, noted V. Ponraj, who is associated with former President for more than three decades. “Srijan Pal Singh, who was privately associated with Dr Kalam, in his academic pursuits, is giving statements and using social media. We wish to inform all that this office has not authorised Srijan Pal Singh to interact with the media on or about Dr APJ Abdul Kalam,” read the statement from H. Sheridon, executive secretary at office of Kalam.

Singh, who had co-authored books with Dr Kalam, instantly connected with many people through his Facebook post, uploaded immediately after the former president's death. Since then, he has been in the limelight, giving interviews and posting on social media.

On the sidelights of a function to commemorate Kalam, Singh said that he was not interested in creating a controversy by issuing a statement against the communication from Kalam’s office. “Whatever I share is only personal and nothing official about it. I will continue to talk in the social media regarding how he inspired me,” he told DC. According to him Kalam’s legacy belongs to the entire India and it is not a private property.

With everybody – be it journalists, green activists, employees of Kalam -  trying to market themselves by highlighting their association with Dr Kalam, the office of former President said that it had advised Singh to deactivate all the FB and Twitter account in the name of Kalam or in his memory.

“We are not asking him to stop talking about Kalam. But we want to make sure there is nothing official about him because we have been receiving lot of calls seeking to know Singh’s association with Kalam,” said Sheridon, when Deccan Chronicle contacted him. When asked about the significance of existence of office of Kalam after his demise, Sheridon said: "We are in the process of closing down the office."