Kalam urges students to choose development politics as career

Mumbai, July 18 (UNI) President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam today exhorted students to choose development politics as a career option, stating that the prevailing trend of 'political politics' was not good.

Interacting with the students at the inauguration of the sesquicentennial (150th) celebrations of Mumbai University here, Mr Kalam said, ''You have to excel in education first and then can choose politics as a career. What is happening now is where we see more of 'political politics', which is not good.'' ''You as a voter would definitely vote for the best qualified person among the candidates,'' he said and added that in the present Lok Sabha, the number of MPs who were graduates, post-graduates and PhDs, had gone up considerably and this process was continuing.

Responding to a poser on how could youth involve and use both politics and education for the overall development of the country, he said, ''If you decide on a political career, you must equip yourself with subjects like political economics. While in politics, you must concentrate on 'development politics'.'' Denying the statement that power and responsibility is being denied to young people, Mr Kalam said, ''In Parliament, industry, trade and commerce, the average age of people at the helm of affairs is coming down. For planning and implementation at higher levels, we need dynamism of the youth and the experience and maturity of the old. Both have to work together in accomplishing great missions.'' Asked how economic and social justice could be assured in the global arena, the President said economic development in India had to go hand in hand with social justice.

''For this, the government, industry and business houses have all got to be sensitive to their social responsibility and make it a part of their mandate,'' he added.

To a question on need to amend definition of rape and include marital rape under the Indian Penal Code like in many western countries, Mr Kalam said: ''We cannot follow what the western countries have done. Social bond in Indian lives is much deeper than in the west. Our education level particularly in the rural areas has to go up. Nationwide debate is needed to find the sentiments of all people in the country about the need for such enactments.'' (Eds: here pick up suitably from earlier series) UNI MR ADG PK PM1720