Yet it provides deep insight into the functioning of upright Kalam as president and the seriousness with which he does his job. It also brings out the helplessness of Kalam during the 2005 Bihar Assembly dissolution crisis and the subsequent Supreme Court judgment terming the presidential order as unconstitutional. Although Nair takes it upon himself to advise Kalam to sign the Bihar dissolution in Moscow in the early hours of morning after a hurried Cabinet approval in India and a call from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the jury is still out on whether Kalam did the right thing by signing the dissolution right away without taking a considered expert opinion.

Kalam’s instinct otherwise for due diligence is brought out in great detail in the book, especially regarding the Office of Profit Bill as it was returned to the government in the first instance. The chapter on Afzal Guru, one of the main accused in the December 13, 2001, Parliament attack and now on death row, is crisp and informative without being judgmental on the politics of the day.

The author takes us behind the scenes after the 2004 election result and the 2007 presidential elections, only to emphasise that Kalam was above politics.
However, the book is silent on Kalam’s umbilical chord with the defence establishment, particularly the DRDO, even though Nair himself spent nearly a decade in the Defence Ministry. Details of the meeting between Kalam and Kavita Gadgil, whose fighter pilot son Abhijit died in a MiG-21 crash in Rajasthan, would have been fascinating as it was the then president himself who asked for full details from the Indian Air Force. Nair only talks about Kalam’s adventures aboard a Russian Kilo-class submarine, then newly acquired Russian Su-30 MKI fighter and the mandatory Siachen glacier visit.

... contd.