‘Sarabhai envisioned moon mission’

A resurgent India has a vision, an innovative future and the ‘GRIIT’ to make a difference. Former president of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has a vision for India in 2020, a dream he has shared during his second successive elective at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA).
In an interview with Dayananda Meitei and Jumana Shah, the scientist-cum-teacher shares his ideas on how to draw youths into politics and whether India should sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Excerpts:

You have donned several mantles over the years — scientist, head of state and now a teacher. Which did you enjoy the most, and what’s next?
I have enjoyed teaching the most. I love teaching. I find it the best way to reach out to the youth and to make a difference. The youth are responding very well. I taught two subjects today at IIMA. I talked about the European Union, how after fighting for all these years, they have now come together for peace and prosperity. You can fight for hundreds of years, but they have finally settled down; it’s been 27 years since.
Then I talked about Chandrayaan-1, how Vikram Sarabhai gave the nation a vision for space research. That was the foundation for Chandrayaan. I talked to the students about the India 2020 vision, how we can remove poverty. With 20 million people living below the poverty line, we target a growth of 10 per cent for our gross domestic product (GDP).

How can we achieve it?
 It will be through an education-value system, infrastructure development, an information communication system, leadership. In another 10 years, how India will transform!

What is the biggest deterrent to Indian youth entering mainstream politics?
As we discussed today in class, I define politics as being the sum of development politics and political politics. So, political parties have to fight to become legislative members, or part of the parliament. Development politics is when the parties say that “10 years are not needed for economic development, we will do it in seven years.”
Normally, political parties should work 70 per cent of the time on development politics, 30 per cent on political politics. But the reverse happens in our country. So, if politics today is development politics-driven, many youth will join. The trend today is that young people want to join politics. I have met nearly six million youth in the last few years. The feedback is that they too want to join, contribute and make a difference in politics. If you see the parliament now, the young and educated population has increased. It is going to increase, but the party system is not allowing young people to participate properly. All political parties should be encouraged to join. There will then be dynamism. Even women will bring in purposeful politics.

What are your current efforts in terms of scientific research?
I now have three students with me. They are conducting research and I am guiding them. One student is working on e-governance. Another is conducting research on the mentally challenged. The third is working in an area of information technology to transform knowledge into power. I am guiding these three people.