Kumaraswamy invites Kalam to settle down in Bangalore

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has invited President A P J Abdul Kalam to settle down in Bangalore after he demits office next.

Kumaraswamy told reporters that he made the offer to the President during his visit to the Master Control Facility (MCF) of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) at Hassan in Karnataka on Friday to dedicate the INSAT-4B to the nation.

The President, whose term at the Raisina Hills ends on July 24, is reported to have thanked Kumaraswamy for the offer and assured to consider the same. “Though he did not commit himself, he promised to consider the offer”, Kumaraswamy said.

The Karnataka Chief Minister made the offer to Abdul Kalam during one-to-one talk on the sidelines of the function at MCF. During the brief exchange of words, the President appreciated Kumaraswamy village stays and suggested that he interact with students during the village stays.

It may be mentioned here that Abdul Kalam, before assuming the President’s mantle five years ago, had expressed his desire to settle down in Bangalore and continue his research work at Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Kumaraswamy’s offer to the President also comes at a time when there are reports that Bangalore-headquartered ISRO was planning to offer a top position at its Indian Institute of Space Technology (IIST) coming up at Trivandrum in neighbouring Kerala.

Meanwhile, Abdul Kalam was accorded a warm farewell at Bangalore airport on Friday after what was billed as his last official visit to the State as the President of India. Children from a host of schools in Bangalore greeted him with a banner that read “With love from the children of Karnataka”. He interacted with the children for a brief while before returning to New Delhi.

Also, on behalf of the people of Karnataka, Deccan Herald, an English daily, took the initiative to bid farewell to the President and conveyed the people’s wishes with bouquets and words of love and thankfulness. The newspaper’s chairman and editor K N Tilak Kumar pointed out that Kalam had captured the imagination of Karnataka and enjoyed unbridled love of the children in the State.