Capability Plus Character

Capability Plus Character

1988 12 December 14 Capability Plus Character (312) The selection of Dr. Abul Kalam for a post of such distinction gives us a great lesson. It shows us the great range of opportunities which exist for Indian Muslims. It is just a question of the latter developing their potential, and they can aspire to the highest positions in the country.

Banner headlines in all the Indian national dailies on February 26, 1988, announced “The Successful Experiment of the First Indian Missile”. To thunderous applause, the Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, had announced on February 25, that India had made a surface-to-surface missile, called Prithvi, which had undergone successful testing. Wholly fabricated with the use of Indian technology, and with a range of 250 kilometers, it was a weapon vital to India’s defence. Now India had become the fifth country to be capable of fabricating surface-to-surface missiles, the other four being the USA, USSR, France and China.

According to the Hindustan Times of February 26, 1988, this Prithvi missile was produced at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory at Hyderabad by a team of scientists headed by Dr. Abul Kalam.

Defence research is work of a very sensitive nature, so that those who are selected to work in this department must be not only very highly qualified but also thoroughly dependable in character. The selection of Dr. Abul Kalam for a post of such distinction gives us a great lesson. It shows us the great range of opportunities which exist for Indian Muslims. It is just a question of the latter developing their potential, and they can aspire to the highest positions in the country.

In this world, the only thing of real value is human capability. One has only to prove one’s mettle and one will have no difficulty in finding a place of honour. Conversely, if one neglects one’s potential, one will have no value anywhere in the world.