1. He was not the best scientist India ever have seen.
2. He was not the greatest President India has got.
I will be addressing below three questions in this post:
1.Why Mr.Kalam is not the greatest Indian Scientist?
2.Why Mr.Kalam is not the greatest President of India?
3.Why is he overrated (a mere hype)?
(I)Why Mr.Kalam is not the greatest Scientist?
Indians are yet to learn differentiating between the terms ‘Scientist’ and ‘Engineer’
Comparative Reasons: If Mr.Kalam is hyped to be a great scientist or genius, that is the average (middle class) Indian mediocrity's naive (nationalistic) idea!Anyone who ever have heard of Satyendranath Bose(remember Boson, Higgs Boson , Bose-Einstein Condensation), C V Raman, S Chandrashekhar(Indian Origin),Jagadeesh Chandra Bose, living legend Dr.George Sudarsan, or even MS Swaminathan HJ Bhabha or Vikram Sarabhai would find it difficult to digest the idea that Mr.Kalam is a genius! Kalam is not even comparable
with any of these names above,for a person of science.
On the basis of his Ideological stand: Peaceful use of science is an idea that has been considered as sensible by the scientific community for over 6 decades (Remember Russell–Einstein Manifesto & Pugwash). Mr. Kalam is a gross volition of it, unfortunately! Before all the PR Work, he was a person who used get engaged in war cry with his Pakistan counterpart Abdul Quadir Khan (Media conveniently forgot it). No scientist is complete unless he loves humanity.
Technical Merit: What exactly (on a categorical analysis) Mr.Kalam's contribution to humanity/science? How many research thesis (Ph.D) are there in his name? None! He has been awarded mere honorary doctorate(s). He was a mere 'Technocrat' than a scientist! How many of his works are published in major science journals?
Science Outreach (Getting science into common people): Mr. Jayant Narliker or Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad has actively contributed to science outreach than Mr.Kalam.
(II)Why Mr.Kalam is not the greatest President of India?
Kalam is no way comparable with Dr.S.Radhakrishnan for his scholarly ability.I doubt he even matches the less celebrated KR Narayanan (Mr Narayan twice rturned Central government's recommendation to dismiss Rabri Devi Govt(Bihar Assembly) using the controversial article 356. Kalam was not the only or first politically independant president of india as many have understood (refer wikipedia).
In fact Mr.Kalam was backed by BJP and Sankh Parivar(The larger political umbrella of Hindu Right wing extremist organizations).
Some people claim that he was so close to children-[hmm], he was THE SUPREME COMMANDER OF ARMED FORCES in INDIA- not the
'child welfare minister'! It is irrelevant to quote such things in any serious analysis on merit!
(III)Why is he overrated (a mere hype)?
Recent rise of Extreme Indian Nationalism: Indians are witnessing it- from Nuclear-Bomb Politics to Modi to Mangalyan, mediocre Indians are being extremely nationalistic! The politics of this can be understood if we do some search in internet ( Anand Patvardhan's documentaries are a good place to start). We as a country which has been in extreme poverty and starvation, under foreign rule for centuries, now think that we are resurrecting and we just try to be irrational enough to justify anything Indian. This is ridiculous!
Sankh Parivar, BJP Agenda: Mr Kalam unfortunatey was falling victim of BJP Agenda to ignite nationalistic feeling (They backed him in the presidential elections). Also he has been pointed out as an example of how Muslims should be (in this secular diverse country) by Hindu extremists!
Inaccurate knowledge acquisition process : As India is a developing nation, more and more people started getting access to educational facilities (highly supplemented by World Wide Web) and started becoming curious on science and knowledge. However quality of education hasn't substantially increased except for a privileged few. Some of the subsequent social & Internet Phenomena possibly have worked out in this scenario (ex: (i)unsubstantiated content being assumed as actual(ii) ignorance about past achievements (or lack of adequate guidance) combined with with the surplus of unreliable content (iii) Sycophancy prevalent among Indian groups etc.). All the former conditions have attributed to finding out inaccurate or even wrong answers for their quest for knowledge.
Media: the rating hungry and immature Indian (especially visual) media would just make celebrities out of anything-from stupid cricket players to belly dancers. They just do the same even with scientists!
Conclusion: If Science is said to be 'one of the last bastion of meritocracy' along with sports, Mr. Kalam's image stands grimacing at it!
Scams just happen, but they don't sustain for long!
Thank you 😊
0 Comments