New Delhi: The most striking scenes were witnessed at 10 Rajaji Marg, the residence of former president APJ Abdul Kalam for the last seven years on tuesday afternoon.
Children, whom the former president APJ Abdul Kalam, loved, and strove hard all his life to ignite a fire in them, to become everything they can, paid tribute to him in large numbers with roses.
A huge crowd too turned up to pay tribute to him this evening, as did many political and other leaders. President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Dr Kalam at his residence. Among others who visited were former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
President Mukherjee and PM Modi had earlier received Dr Kalam’s body at Delhi’s Palam airport. A guard of honour by the three services was held at the airport.
Dr Kalam’s body will lie in state at the bungalow until it is taken to Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, where he was born for the last rites on Thursday. The former President is survived by his older brother Mohd Muthu Meera Lebbai Maraicker, who is 99.
The government has declared a seven-day national mourning as a mark of respect for the man known and loved across the country as the “People’s President”.
The former President died after a massive cardiac arrest while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong, Meghalaya, last evening. He was 83.
Both Houses of Parliament adjourned today as a mark of respect Dr Kalam. They will remain adjourned till July 30.
“Dr Kalam was a national treasure first and a President later. Dr Kalam’s personality was special, his life inspires us, it inspires the youth,” PM Modi said today.
New Delhi: Former president and Bharat Ratna APJ Abdul Kalam died on Monday after he collapsed during a lecture in Shillong.
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Kalam, 83, collapsed during a speech at the IIM Shillong and was rushed to the nearby Bethany Hospital where doctors put him on oxygen and tried to revive him.
“He was brought into hospital without a pulse or BP. There was no sign of life John Sailo Ryntathiang, director of Bethany Hospital,” told the Quint.
Kalam served as president for five years from 2002, enjoying the support of both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.
Kalam was closely involved in the country’s civilian space programme and military missile development efforts, earning him the sobriquet
‘India’s Missile Man’. He worked as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) before he became president.
He also played a pivotal technical and political role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, shortly after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government came to power.
After his term, he returned to a life of education, writing, and public service. He received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in a poor Tamil Muslim family in Rameswaram. But he overcame all odds to study physics and aerospace engineering.
A seven day mourning has been declared. His body will be accompanied by the Governor of Meghalaya to Delhi tomorrow morning according to the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Sangma.
PM Modi, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and many other leaders have condoled the death of the former President.
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