Ajit Doval spells out NaMo security doctrine

Ajit Doval spells out NaMo security doctrine

Dr Kalam’s Last Day, the Untold Story

It has been eight hours since we last talked – sleep eludes me and memories keep flushing down, sometimes as tears. Our day, 27th July, began at 12 noon, when we took our seats in the flight to Guwahati. Dr. Kalam was 1A and I was IC. He was wearing a dark colored “Kalam suit”, and I started off complimenting, “Nice color!” Little did I know this was going to be the last color I will see on him.

Long, 2.5 hours of flying in the monsoon weather. I hate turbulence, and he had mastered over them. Whenever he would see me go cold in shaking plane, he would just pull down the window pane and saw, “Now you don’t see any fear!”

That was followed by another 2.5 hours of car drive to IIM Shillong. For these two-legged trip of five hours, we talked, discussed and debated. These were amongst hundreds of the long flights and longer drives we have been together over the last six years.

As each of them, this was as special too. Three incidents/discussions in particular will be “lasting memories of our last trip”.

First, Dr. Kalam was absolutely worried about the attacks in Punjab. The loss of innocent lives left him filled with sorrow. The topic of lecture at IIM Shillong was Creating a Livable Planet Earth. He related the incident to the topic and said, “it seems the man made forces are as big a threat to the livability of earth as pollution”. We discussed on how, if this trend of violence, pollution and reckless human action continues we will forced to leave earth. “Thirty years, at this rate, maybe”, he said. “You guys must do something about it… it is going to be your future world”

Our second discussion was more national. For the past two days, Dr. Kalam was worried that time and again Parliament, the supreme institution of democracy, was dysfunctional. He said, “I have seen two different governments in my tenure. I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that the parliament works on developmental politics.”

He then asked me to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students at IIM Shillong, which he would give them only at the end of the lecture. He wanted to them to suggest three innovative ways to make the Parliament more productive and vibrant. Then, after a while he returned on it. “But how can ask them to give solutions if I don’t have any myself”. For the next one hour, we thwarted options after options, who come up with his recommendation over the issue.

We wanted to include this discussion in our upcoming book, Advantage India.

Third, was an experience from the beauty of his humility. We were in a convoy of 6-7 cars. Dr. Kalam and I were in the second car. Ahead us was an open gypsy with three soldiers in it. Two of them were sitting on either side and one lean guy was standing atop, holding his gun. One hour into the road journey, Dr. Kalam said, “Why is he standing? He will get tired. This is like punishment. Can you ask a wireless message to given that he may sit?” I had to convince him, he has been probably instructed to keep standing for better security. He did not relent. We tried radio messaging, that did not work. For the next 1.5 hours of the journey, he reminded me thrice to see if I can hand signal him to sit down. Finally, realizing there is little we can do – he told me, “I want to meet him and thank him”. Later, when we landed in IIM Shillong, I went inquiring through security people and got hold of the standing guy. I took him inside and Dr. Kalam greeted him. He shook his hand, said thank you buddy. “Are you tired? Would you like something to eat? I am sorry you had to stand so long because of me”. The young lean guard, draped in black cloth, was surprised at the treatment. He lost words, just said, “Sir, aapke liye to 6 ghante bhi khade rahenge”.

After this, we went to the lecture hall. He did not want to be late for the lecture. “Students should never be made to wait”, he always said. I quickly set up his mic, briefed on final lecture and took position on the computers. As I pinned his mike, he smiled and said, “Funny guy! Are you doing well?” ‘Funny guy’, when said by Kalam could mean a variety of things, depending on the tone and your own assessment. It could mean, you have done well, you have messed up something, you should listen to him or just that you have been plain naïve or he was just being jovial. Over six years I had learnt to interpret Funny Guy like the back of my palm. This time it was the last case.

“Funny guy! Are you doing well?” he said. I smiled back, “Yes”. Those were the last words he said. Two minutes into the speech, sitting behind him, I heard a long pause after completing one sentence. I looked at him, he fell down.

We picked him up. As the doctor rushed, we tried whatever we could. I will never forget the look in his three-quarter closed eyes and I held his head with one hand and tried reviving with whatever I could. His hands clenched, curled onto my finger. There was stillness on his face and those wise eyes were motionlessly radiating wisdom. He never said a word. He did not show pain, only purpose was visible.

In five minutes, we were in the nearest hospital. In another few minutes ,the they indicated the missile man had flown away, forever. I touched his feet, one last time. Adieu old friend! Grand mentor! See you in my thoughts and meet in the next birth.

As turned back, a closet of thoughts opened.

Often he would ask me, “You are young, decide what will like to be remembered for?” I kept thinking of new impressive answers, till one day I gave up and resorted to tit-for-tat. I asked him back, “First you tell me, what will you like to be remembered for? President, Scientist, Writer, Missile man, India 2020, Target 3 billion…. What?” I thought I had made the question easier by giving options, but he sprang on me a surprise. “Teacher”, he said.

Then something he said two weeks back when we were discussing about his missile time friends. He said, “Children need to take care of their parents. It is sad that sometimes this is not happening”. He paused and said, “Two things. Elders must also do. Never leave wealth at your deathbed – that leaves a fighting family. Second, one is blessed is one can die working, standing tall without any long drawn ailing. Goodbyes should be short, really short”.

Today, I look back – he took the final journey, teaching, what he always wanted to be remembered doing. And, till his final moment he was standing, working and lecturing. He left us, as a great teacher, standing tall. He leaves the world with nothing accumulated in his account but loads of wishes and love of people. He was a successful, even in his end.

Will miss all the lunches and dinners we had together, will miss all the times you surprised me with your humility and startled me with your curiosity, will miss the lessons of life you taught in action and words, will miss our struggles to race to make into flights, our trips, our long debates. You gave me dreams, you showed me dreams need to be impossible, for anything else is a compromise to my own ability. The man is gone, the mission lives on. Long live Kalam.

Your indebted student,
Srijan Pal Singh

For the original version on newsmobile.in visit: http://www.newsmobile.in/articles/2015/07/28/dr-kalam%E2%80%99s-last-day-untold-story

Exclusive Reports on PetroGate - Another Corporate Espionage Scandal

After the shocking revelation of the corporate espionage scandal, but for the first time, details of the case have started to surface, followed by a detailed charge sheet filed by Delhi Police in the Scandal. The detailed copy of the charge sheet reveals that from the 80 sets of the photocopied documents, recovered from Santanu Saikia of Indian Petro, about 23 copies were stated confidential or secret in nature.

According to the reports sent to the Delhi police from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, majority of the documents were not in public domain. The charge sheet shows that a significant amount of Rs. 2.5 lakhs per month was being paid to the accused, Lalta Prasad and Rakesh Kumar. These payments were being made by a group, which includes - Shailesh Saxena from Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Vinay Kumar from Essar, KK Naik from Cairns India, Subhash Chandra from Jubilant Energy, and Rishi Anand from Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (Reliance ADAG), energy consultant Prayas Jain, and Shantanu Saikia.

The charge sheet even mentioned that bank statements of the accused were analysed which revealed that there were significant transactions by cash and cheques despite that fact that both were unemployed.

The authorities recovered 7 set of photocopied documents from Prayas Jain, an energy consultant. Out of the seven, six documents were marked secret or confidential and none were in any public domain.

Discussing about the role of the accused, Delhi Police authorised stated, “Their names have cropped up in the disclosure statements of the accused and the sensitive documents have been recovered from their possession”. On Monday, court took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by Delhi Police against the 13 accused arrested in connection with petroleum ministry document leak case.

Catch the latest and breaking headlines on PetroGate only on News Mobile.

For the original version on newsmobile.in visit: http://www.newsmobile.in/articles/2015/04/21/exclusive-petrogate-corporates-stole-secret-documents

Railway Budget 2015-16: Seek To Improve Facilities, Safety

The first and the most-anticipated Rail Budget of the BJP government was tabled on the floor of the house today by Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu. Sparing the passengers of a potential hike in fare, the minister proposed a big hike in building the outlay for basic amenities.

Targeting an investment of Rs. 8 lakh crore over a period of five years in the development of railways, the chartered accountant turned politician highlighted that the “India Railway is a web of veins which pumps blood into the heart of the Indian economy!”. He emphasized that railways carry a huge burden of expectation and the citizens are often not aware of the constraint. Highlighting the problems of underinvestment, the 6 drivers of the Rail Budget 2015 described by the Railway Minister were as follows:

• Adopting a medium term perspective
• Building sustainable partnerships
• Using additional resources
• Overhauling system, procedures and re-tooling of management practices
• Setting standards for governance and encouraging transparency

The Rail minister went ahead to table the 11 thrust areas of the action plan in the Railway Budget 2015-16.

• No change in passenger fare was proposed, which meant that no hike on the current passenger fare was tabled.
• Taking from the Swacch Bharat campaign, emphasis on cleanliness was realized. The rail minister indicated on bringing over 600 new toilets to railway stations and planned to replace around 17,000 old toilets this year alone. He ensured the house about the involvement of private agencies in the cleanliness drive.
• Besides cleanliness, private sector will be roped in to modernize railway stations in the next five years.
• An All India 24x7 helpline number 138 will become operational in a few months, which will address passenger complaints on a real-time basis. This service is scheduled to start in Northern Railways from April 1 and will be extended in phases across India soon. Additionally, SMS alert services will inform passenger about arrival and departure of trains.
• Facility to book wheelchairs for senior citizens will be available online. While, mobile charging facilities in general compartments, Wi-Fi in Category B Stations will be offered as well. Additionally, Surveillance cameras will be installed on selected mainline and ladies compartment.
• More general class coaches will be added to selected train and NIFT, NID will be involved for better bed rolls, coach designs to make the upper berth more accessible.
• Introduction of train sets will help reduce up to 20% journey time. These trains will be similar to bullet trains in design and can run on existing tracks.
• RDSO, IIT Kanpur will be involved in increasing the safety of unmanned crossings.
• This year the Railways will celebrate 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s return from South Africa. Thus, it will aim at promoting Gandhi Circle for tourism.
• The budget emphasized on improving the speed of trains from 110, 130 to 160 and 200 kms respectively, so that metropolitan journey – such as Delhi to Mumbai – can be completed overnight.
• Open bidding will be scheduled for sourcing electricity. While proposal to launch, encourage water conversation and water harvesting plants will be initiated as well.

For more insights on the 2015-16 Railway budget, todays latest news and latest news headlines, please feel free to visit Newsmobile.in

For the original version on newsmobile.in visit: - http://www.newsmobile.in/articles/2015/02/26/railway-budget-2015-live-updates