DNA

Bangalore, Apr 2: For India’s netizens, it is either APJ Abdul Kalam or IT honcho Narayana Murthy who should be the nation’s next first citizen. With Kalam’s tenure ending in four months, the cyberspace is full of encomiums for the duo, although Kalam has expressed his interest in teaching and music after his term and Murthy has stated his own disinclination to enter politics of any kind.

Bloggers on Sify, Blogspot, Metblog, and Wordpress are fiercely advocating the suitability and advisability of having either Kalam or Murthy in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan for the next five years. Both are hailed as intelligent, visionary and selfless and as being a class apart from the political aspirants for the top job.

The number of signatures on an online petition pleading for another term for Kalam stands at 273,590. "Kalam is capable of bringing and guiding the Indian youth to deliver quality for the country. He is a positive person with great leadership qualities," writes Kalpana Singh on the e-petition.

Adds S Pisharodya, another petitioner, "We need someone sensible and with a scientific temperament to lead the country. And what better option do we have than have someone as eminent as Kalam. If politicians have their way, we would find a wheeler-dealer to occupy the honourable chair."

Those with a tech bent of mind plump for the Infosys mentor as the next President. Bloggers supporting Murthy seem to be sure that all that India needs now is a big stride in technology to emerge as world’s third largest economy. "India of the twenty-first century is leading the world in knowledge and we desperately need Murthy’s guidance to capitalise on this advantage," says Jajith, a blogger.

The IT fraternity is not happy with Murthy being only an icon of the IT industry and want him to take on a bigger role of heading the nation.