February 17, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs

Bahrain’s Abdullah Al Madani gives his view on the parallel career’s of India’s Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Pakistan’s Dr A Q Khan, and concludes that it was India’s democratic system and accompanying conditions that made all the difference.

Avul Paker Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam in India and Abdul Qadeer Khan in Pakistan are both Muslim, miracle men, and have been known as the fathers of the nuclear bomb in their respective countries. The latter, however, is now facing humiliation and a trial, while the former is happily fulfilling his daily duties as the president of India.

The reason cannot but be attributed to the different political systems and the accompanying conditions under which each man has managed his life and career.

Whether Khan acted on his own to share sensitive nuclear secrets with Iran and Libya (as he confessed on February 4) or did so in agreement with his bosses in the army and military intelligence (as he emphasised on February 2), the problem lies in the country’s system and ideology[Gulf News]Though Al Madani gets some facts wrong - President Abdul Kalam is not a nuclear scientist, but an aeronautical engineer; more responsible for India’s missile programme than for its nuclear bomb - he get the crux of it right.

And President Abdul Kalam is a much better example of a moderate Muslim than Gen Musharraf can ever hope to be.

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