A statue of former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was unveiled today at Rameswaram on his first death anniversary. Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Manohar Parrikar were present at the unveiling.

Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar who was present at the occasion writes
that ahead of the unveiling there were a plethora of speakers who wasted a lot of time taking the names of every person on stage.

In fact, a local MLA and two Tamil Nadu ministers spent the better part of their speech thanking Amma for making Kalam the President of India!
(Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi would beg to differ).

For added benefit the netas said that Amma would have made Kalam president for a second term, but a politician from Tamil Nadu threw a spanner in the works.

Other speakers thankfully spoke only about Kalam.

Union minister for Urban Development Venkiah Naidu, wearing a cricket cap began his speech in Tamil by greeting Dr Kalam s brother who is present. He said Jayalalithaa has promised more land for the memorial and thanked her. Naidu said that the greatest tribute to Kalam is to follow his teachings. The memorial is a symbol of India's gratitude to him and is a temple for future generations, Naidu said.

Image: The statue of Dr Kalam at Rameswaram. Photo: A Ganesh Nadar