Lessons of life a ‘People’s President’ can teach

Jagdeep Chhokhar

The widespread adulation that poured out from all sections of the population of the country at the passing away of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was not a surprise. The honorific, “People's President”, had not been bestowed on him without reason. His connect with common people, particularly with the young ones, including students, was indeed remarkable. But is this connect with common people enough to explain the largescale expression of grief or is there more to it?

Of course, the access to social media with its inbuilt capability to create heroes (as well as villains) does explain some of the intense expressions of admiration and grief. Notwithstanding that, it seems fair to say that the phenomenon of such large numbers of people feeling grieved had not possibly seen since the passing away of Gandhi and Nehru. Based on the views expressed that one has come across, an overwhelming majority of the population seemed to have expressed unadulterated admiration for him. It seems to have been a life well lived, without blemish.

But was Kalam was the only one to have lived a life without blemish? What exactly did he do? Born in very modest circumstances, he succeeded in pursuing good education and in getting a job with a prestigious government organisation. He blossomed in to a successful and effective technocrat, occupying positions of leadership in some very significant projects that had a strong bearing on the defence and armament capability of the nation. By most accounts, he discharged these responsibilities creditably.

All, if not most, of the projects that he was involved in or led, by their very nature, were such that they could not be accomplished by individuals but required collaborative working by large numbers of people, spread 

over many locations. Therefore, it is obvious that he had a very high level of people-management skills. But then again, are a high level of people-management skills so rare as to explain his immense popularity?

Common experience tells us it is not so. As a matter of fact, Kalam himself has often quoted the names of two people with whom he worked in his younger days and credits them with teaching him these values by setting an example for him to emulate. The two people are Dr Vikram Sarabhai, widely considered to be the father of the India's space programme, and Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded Sarabhai as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

So, what made Kalam stand out from his illustrious predecessors dare one say, successors?His life took a distinguishing trajectory in 2002, when he was elected the 11th President of the country. He served as President for only one term. It was during his presidency and afterwards that he stood out.

As the President, he continued to behave like a citizen of the country though he indeed was The First Citizen, and not like a prima donna, taking privilege and special treatment for granted, or even demanding as people in lesser but similar situations still do. Arrogance that is often associated with high office in the country did not seem to affect him. What surprised people was that a man holding the highest office in the land seemed to behave normally. His apparent and obvious empathy with common people earned his the sobriquet'People's President'.

Why was this so unusual? The Presidency is commonly considered to be a “political” office. And this impression in indeed borne out by facts. Nine out of the 10 predecessors of Kalam as President were people who had been active in politics, the sole exception being the philosopher S. Radhakrishnan, who was President from 1962 to 1967.

First Kalam surprised people by not behaving like a politician while occupying an office perceived to be political. The second surprise came when his first term ended and there was speculation about a second term for him. First he said that “he was willing to contest for a second term if there was certainty about his success in the poll.” But just two days later, as the political wrangling began, he made it clear that after “reviewing the situation carefully from all angles, he has decided that in the current scenario, he will not be interested in running for the second term as he does not want Rashtrapati Bhavan to become involved in any political process.”

But his being the occupant of a political office and not behaving like a politician was only one of the reasons for his popularity. There is a much deeper reason for the tremendous outpouring of grief and admiration at his death. And that has to do with the public perception of politicians or how people at large have come to expect politicians to behave.

Without being uncharitable to all politicians and remembering that there are always exceptions to generalisations, it must be said that the political class has not covered itself with glory by its general behaviour over the last few years. Their behaviour by and large has been self-serving and partisan. Political discourse has become disagreeable, actually distasteful, not only during the heat of the election campaign but it is so all the time. The complete lack of political morality, when senior politicians describe the actions of their colleagues as “immoral but not illegal” and hence acceptable, does not generate any confidence, what to speak of respect, for the political class in the minds of common people. The continuing spectacle of a non-functioning Parliament over the last couple of years only adds to the chagrin of the people.

It is this continuing self-seeking behaviour by the political class with scant attention to national interest that has brought the expectations of people from politicians to a nadir. It is this air of despondency generated by the current political establishment consisting of all the parties which made people admire Kalam like a shining star in this depressing landscape. His passing away seems to have taken away whatever semblance of decency the political firmament had.

The biggest lesson the celebration of Kalam's life offers, if the political class is willing to learn, is to bring back decency and morality to politics in the country.

The writer is former Professor, Dean & Director-in -charge of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad