Tolerance and creative leadership needed: Kalam

KOLKATA: People in India will have to learn not only to respect but also celebrate differences in culture, religion and race, former President APJ Abdul Kalam said in Kolkata while delivering the 5th Admiral A K Chatterji lecture, organized by the Navy Foundation Kolkata Charter. India will also have to stand up to the world, militarily and economically, he added while elaborating upon the need for creative leadership in the country. Chatterji was the first full admiral to head the Indian Navy and it was his vision that led to the procurement of the Osa missile boats (named Alpha-Kilo Class after him) that attacked Karachi harbour in December, 1970.

"Over the last 3,000 years, India has been conquered, captured and invaded several times. India has never attempted to grab land belonging to any other country though. This is because we respect the freedom of others. If we are not free, nobody will respect us. India has been a developing country for the last 60 years. Its time we became a developed country. Our achievements are recognized across the world but we lack self-confidence. We have to strengthen areas like agro-food processing, education - particularly for women - ensure that health facilities reach all 600,000 villages, expand information technology network across the country, reach electricity to all corners, develop our surface transport network and concentrate of self-raised critical energy. Imagine what levels India can achieve if all 250 million houses in the country have solar panels on the roof. The need is to think out of the box," Kalam said.

According to him, development of the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile was one of the greatest developments of this decade. This was an example of how a joint venture can take place between two countries with areas of core competencies, Creative leadership was responsible for this, Kalam said. It is time for India to have creative, responsible leadership.

"I have spent 25 years in ISRO and a similar number of years with DRDO. There, I have learnt that a leader must have vision. My Guru was Vikram Sarabhai. A leader must also have the passion to accomplish the mission. An example is 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan. A leader will also have to travel untread paths and learn to manage success and failure. I remember August 20, 1979 when ISRO was preparing to launch its first rocket from Sriharikota. The rocket, with its payload landed in the Bay of Bengal. When the media wanted to why this happened, ISRO chairman Satish Dhawan said that he takes full responsibility as mission director. He also promised that ISRO will succeed next year. In July, 1980, the launch was successful but Dhawan didn't attend the press meet. He left it to his team. The key to true leadership is to give credit to the team when success is achieved. This is true for all fields," Kalam said.

Kalam pointed out that India is a multi-lingual and multi-racial nation in which lawlessness and violence can't be tolerated. A system will have to be evolved to prevent such acts.

"There has to be tolerance for other people's opinions, beliefs and culture. Everybody in this society, from political leaders to administrators, the police, the defence forces and the media will have to learn to regulate themselves in accordance to rules laid down by the Constitution. The youth in this country is in favour of democracy with faster growth. Vision is important. For real growth, the urban-rural divide has to be brought down, all three sectors - agriculture, industry and service - have to work together, education and healthcare have to be given importance and a transparent, corruption free government has to evolve," he added.

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