SHILLONG, APR 12: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-state youth wing- on Tuesday demanded renaming the Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong after late India’s President APJ Abdul Kalam, who passed away while delivering a lecture in the institute last year.
“We demand that the institute be renamed as APJ Abdul Kalam Indian Institute of Management, Shillong,” BJP Youth Wing president Egenstar Kurkalang told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, also known as the ‘Missile Man’ passed away in Shillong on July 27, last year after he collapsed while delivering a lecture at IIM-Shillong.
Recalling the contribution made by Dr Kalam, Kurkalang said that the institute deserved to be named after this great son of the soil as a mark of paying him with rich tribute.
“He (Dr Kalam) was the people’s president and had contributed a lot to the nation as scientist. He was the only president who had visited the state at least thrice time,” he said.
The youth wing president also recalled that there was a strong protest from ngos against the decision to name the institute after the former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
He however said that the party is not against naming the institute after the former prime minister but is of the opinion that there are already various schemes implemented to honour his name.
When asked, Kurkalang said that the BJP youth wing would soon submitted a proposal on the matter to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani for necessary consideration.
Meanwhile, the party also lamented the lack of initiative on the part of the state government to come up with some kind of proposal to pay homage to Dr Kalam, even after nearly one year of his passing away.-By Our Reporter
I do agree to renamed iim shillong to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam rather than Rajiv Gandhi who doesn’t relates anything with the institute