India’s pursuit of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) was unacceptable to signatories of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). They imposed reinvigorated, crippling technology sanctions.

The ‘voice of wisdom’ has come out, unfortunately, after causing enormous and irreversible damage to the people, betraying their trust based on his ‘expertise’ as the government’s scientific advisor. The issue here is not the merits of India-United States’ nuclear deal that he has suddenly chosen to root for.

There can be ideological differences on the wisdom of denying access to inexpensive and abundant power to the pathetically power-starved industry and agriculture by harping on the country’s ‘sovereignty’. The present government’s view is that it would be suicidal to insist on ‘sovereign right’ to continue as NPT non-signatory for long. It is perhaps not wrong to consider obeying international law as the surrender of national sovereignty. But, whether or not India wants to get technology and investment for N-power (nuclear power) production, there seems to be no other option than to fall in line with other non-nuclear weapon countries – whether one considers the treaty fair or not. That should be clear from the fate of more fiercely ‘nationalist’ countries with healthier economies like Iraq, North Korea, Libya and now Iran.

The besieged Prime Minister (PM) welcomed Kalam’s unpredicted support to the Indo-US deal. He said, “Kalam was intimately associated with Pokhran-II and is a distinguished scientist and former president. I hope the country and the people will listen to his advice.” However, the Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary, AB Bardhan, was not impressed with the new-found enlightenment of top-drawer turncoats. While informing that the Left “had great respect” for Kalam, he added, “But just as he has words of wisdom, others in the country have given us words of wisdom too. Having weighed his words carefully, we came to the conclusion that there is no change in our stand.”

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former external affairs minister, Jaswant Singh, sarcastically remarked, “I am too small to comment on what Kalam said.” He, however, remembered that Kalam was in favour of walking out of the treaty for the sake of nuclear testing. He revealed, “When we came to power for 13 days, even then, we wanted to do nuclear tests, but scientists (headed by Kalam) advised us that it would be better if it was done after the confidence vote.” He rued, “Kalam changed his views. He abandoned strategic autonomy and walked out of the agreement.”

There definitely is a section of the population, particularly among thinkers and intellectuals that supports the Left parties. They are well aware that their stand has already put the clock back on reforms process by about a decade. However, they ideologically believe that the country’s long-term interests lie in (blindly?) opposing US-style capitalism. Similarly, there is another section – it is incidentally predominant – that supports BJP. This section sincerely believes that our ’Aryan’ (superior race) ancestors had mastered technologies like ’Nagastra’, ’Brahmastra’ etc and ruled the world in medieval times; so Indians have a right and duty to lord over all countries in the region as a nuke-wielding superpower! Such posturing by BJP and Left can, at worst, be termed as political expedience to derive mileage from the government’s haplessness.

The unprincipled defection by the ‘advisors’, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter. It only exposes them as rank opportunists and turncoats. Their expediency, at the fag end of a lifetime of masquerading as ‘experts’ at the cost of the people, seems to be with an eye on personal fame and immortality. Already, Kalam basks in glory as the icon of India’s quest for nuclear military power. It is in this context that his qualification to proffer ‘words of wisdom’ needs to be examined.

It may be true that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam is a good, honest and god-fearing gentleman, abhorring booze and non-vegetarian delicacies, reciting Bhagwat Gita, playing Veena and practicing celibacy. These arguably admirable qualities, contestable even for reckoning one as a great man, are just irrelevant for someone to be reckoned as a great scientist. Leave alone working on and completing any doctoral program in any Indian or foreign university, Kalam does not even a have a master’s degree in engineering. He joined service in Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after completing a post-graduate diploma in technology. One may still be adamant to recognise him as a ‘scientist’ because of his employment under great real scientists. It is also true that he has been conferred three dozen honourary doctorates, albeit owing to the high offices he occupied.

Such honourary titles are never supposed to be flaunted by suffixing ‘Dr’ before the name of the recipient. Doing so is the prerogative of MDs (Doctor of Medicine) or other successful candidates in academic research programs, requiring several years of slogging and peer-reviewed research publications. One never comes across Dr Rabindranath Tagore, Dr Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr JRD Tata, Dr Ratan Tata, Dr Azim Premji, Dr Narayana Murthy, Dr MF Hussein or Dr Dhirubhai Ambani, even though they are genuine achievers in their fields, decorated by multiple universities. We have only seen worthies like Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa indulging in such cheap gimmicks. The farce amounts to playing a cruel joke on genuine academics and scientists and ridiculing their higher education.

Moreover, even if ‘scientist’ is considered as a title like ‘superstar’ or ‘master blaster’, it would be odd to call Dr Abdul Kalam a nuclear scientist. He has never formally studied nuclear science and had hardly anything to do with Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) during his entire service, before becoming scientific advisor.

Kalam was a typical techno-babu of the pre-liberalisation era, good at hollow rhetoric. He was lucky to rise to the top by being a typical Indian bureaucrat, getting on the right side of whoever comes to power. More than politicians of different shades, it was this tribe of techno-babus in the Nehru mould that monopolised and blocked excellence in several fields. The parasites sucked off resources of workers, soldiers, industrialists and professional managers of the country for four decades by mouthing utopian, impractical rhetoric till the advent of economic reforms.

Sectors like electronics, telecom, aviation and radio/telecast started flourishing only after being rescued from monopoly stranglehold of such babus. Kalam has termed his 1998 ‘feat’ as a landmark as important as the advent of economic liberalisation. Far from it. His dubious landmark was an attempt to scuttle reforms. It can be rightly compared to the Parliament’s folly in 1956, taking the country on the ruinous path of permit-license raj, that only benefited babus!

Apart from using nukes and missiles for becoming a ‘developed country’, another great idea of the super-scientist is to connect Ganga with Kaveri to make India a superpower! Now, a river is just not a pipeline for conveying water; it is a complete ecosystem, including flora, fauna, tribal people and marine life. Carelessly meddling with system can cause irreparable long-term damages, as has been seen with several Nehruvian mega projects. It is being increasingly realised all over the world that one can only tap nature, but never conquer it. Such castles in the air can be tolerated only from romantic poets and writers, not from scientists and administrators, in the absence of any systematic study!

Of course, Kalam turned out to be a poet and inspirational writer of some merit after demitting office – after spending his entire career as a bureaucrat. Here too, his writings are not based on any scientific study, as that of many renowned professors in humanities. His hollow rhetoric about Vision India – 2020, “India in the next 12 years would have a very thin line dividing urban and rural areas, abundant quality energy, best destination for science and technology research, quality health-care facilities and a responsive government” can be considered as ‘inspirational’; but never as a statement of mission or vision by a great scholar.

Rather than proffering his ‘wisdom’ on real-time scientific issues to adults, Kalam would be better advised to concentrate on ‘inspiring’ small children. He does create a sense of innocent euphoria in kids prior to their getting practical and experiencing real world!