Former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam passes away, national mourning for 7 days

Former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam passes away, national mourning for 7 days

Former president and Bharat Ratna APJ Abdul Kalam died on Monday after collapsing during a lecture in Shillong. (Sanjeev Verma/HT File Photo)

Former president and Bharat Ratna APJ Abdul Kalam died on Monday after collapsing during a lecture in Shillong.

Kalam, 83, who reached Shillong via Guwahati in the morning, collapsed during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong (IIM-S) around 6:30 pm and rushed to the Bethany Hospital there.

Doctors at the hospital said he was brought dead around 7pm. “He had no pulse when he was admitted to the hospital. We can attribute his death to cardiac arrest,” a doctor said.

The hospital authorities, however, refrained from confirming the death until Meghalaya governor V Shanmughanathan and chief secretary PBO Warjri visited the hospital around 8pm.

“The body of the former president will be flown to New Delhi via Guwahati Tuesday morning,” Warjri said.

IIM-S officials said Kalam, who had tweeted in the morning about the function, showed no signs of illness after he reached the Meghalaya capital. “We had a packed house for the lecture on Liveable Planet Earth,” an official said.

From 'Missile Man' to 'People's President'

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.

The Centre has declared a national mourning of seven days.

"Dr. Kalam was a man of impeccable character, indomitable spirit, profound knowledge and firm conviction. His death is an irreparable loss to this nation. He has left a big void hard to fill," said home minister Rajnath Singh.

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.