Kalam effects and Indian polity

From Shekhar Gupta's National Interest column.

• "The constitutional head of the republic is a political job and has to be performed as such, irrespective of where you find your incumbent from. If you have doubts, check the record of the Kalam presidency. He may have been trained as a missile engineer, but had to function as our most political president, handling — with moral authority and political elan — issues like Central rule in Patna in 2005, controversial judicial appointments, a national transition from NDA to UPA in 2004, and the Office of Profit Bill. And remember the first thing he did on being elected Rashtrapati on the NDA ticket? He went to Ahmedabad to talk to the riot victims as guardian of the Constitution."

PS: I reviewed Dr.Kalam's book India Vision 2020 in 2005 essentially saying its "fiction"!!!!.


Dr. Kalam also said in a different tone in 2011 that":

• “Politics should be a mixture of political politics and developmental politics where the former should comprise 30 per cent and the latter 70 per cent. However, today, our politicians are giving us only 30 per cent developmental politics. The day we are able to make our politicians work for developmental politics, our nation will definitely get on the right track and move towards becoming becoming a super power,"

Do also read Dr. Kalam's speech listing out 9 traits of creative leadership in politics.

1. vision.
2. passion to realize the vision. 
3. Leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path. 
4. knowledge  of how to manage a success and failure. 
5. courage to take decisions. 
6. nobility in management.
7. transparent in every action.
8. Leader becomes the master of the problem, defeats the problem and succeeds.
9. Leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity.

On the issue of brain drain, he had also said, "I don't believe in brain drain. India produces three million graduates every year. If 10 per cent of them leave the country, it is not brain drain."