With Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam no longer alive to corroborate or contradict it, the Nalanda University has claimed on its website that the institution received ‘unwavering support’ from him. The tribute on the website also says that Dr. Kalam had ‘offered’ to visit Nalanda University in near future to deliver his lecture. The website colloquially refers to the late President as ‘Dr. Kalam’ without any hint that he was the head of the state and a scientist. The post further says that in the formative days of the Nalanda University Dr. Kalam interacted with the Nalanda Mentor Group and advised Vice Chacnellor Dr. Gopa Sabharwal and former Chancellor Prof. Amartya Sen on a number of academic issues including the importance of research.

In an exposé three years ago, the Bihar Times made public the letter Dr. Kalam had written to S M Krishna, the then Minister of External Affairs, expressing his inability to accept the position of Visitor in Nalanda University. The Para 3 of the letter dated July 4, 2011 was a crucial one, which carries Dr. Kalam’s opinion about the Mentor Group-

“Having involved in various academic and administrative proceedings of Nalanda University since August 2007, I believe that the candidates to be selected/appointed to the post of Chancellor and Vice Chancellor should be of extraordinary intellect with academic and management expertise. Both the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor have to personally involve themselves full-time in Bihar, so that a robust and strong international institution is built”.

It was an oblique way of telling that he found Prof. Amartya Sen and Dr. Gopa Sabharwal were less than capable and committed to take the project forward. Obviously they were not involving themselves full time in Bihar. While Prof. Sen was a migratory bird, choosing to stay in the USA, Dr. Sabharwal preferred working from the project office in New Delhi citing sanitary problems in Rajgir as an excuse.

It was Dr. Kalam who pitched for the Nalanda University as international institute in his addressto the joint session of Bihar Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council on March 26, 2006. At that time he was the President of India. But he apparently lost his interest in the project after July, 2007 when it was handed over to a mentor group that he could not like. It was also the time he retired from his Presidency.

He definitely had his reasons for dissociating himself from the project quietly in 2011. The irony is that the MEA never announced his dissociation from the project. The Mentor Group also kept deliberately silent on the issue. The news of Dr. Kalam’s resignation first appeared on Bihar Times on September 3, 2011. It was based on a reply sent by H.Sheriden, Executive Secretary to Dr. Kalam, to an e-mail by K.K. Singh, Patna based senior journalist. This happened immediately after it came to light that Dr. Gopa Sabharwal, a Reader, without any experience of teaching at Post Graduation level, had been appointed as the Vice Chancellor. It took quite some times before Dr. Kalam’s resignation letter to be recovered under RTI Act, 2005.

Dr. Kalam, gentle to the core, abhorred tussle. He never made his dissociation an issue in public. Having occupied the nation’s highest office, and being the recipient of India’s highest civilian award, it would have been beneath his dignity. He refrained from even mentioning Nalanda University project in public. While Dr. Kalam is gone, Nalanda University has no right to fake his unstinted support.