News Desk: In a big political revelation, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had wanted to induct missile man APJ Abdul Kalam as a minister in his cabinet during his regime in 1998.


However, Kalam had refused Vajpayee's offer, four years before he became the President of India in 2002.


The report was revealed in Kalam's recent book "Turning Points: A Journey Through Challenges" in which he said that he had declined Vajpayee's offer to be inducted in the cabinet.


Kalam while describing the past, he wrote that he received a phone call on the midnight of March 15, 1998, from Vajpayee when the missile man was the DRDO chief.


"Vajpayee was finalising the list of ministers and he wanted to induct me into his cabinet. I told him that I needed some time to think about it. He asked me to see him the next morning at 9 AM," he wrote.


Kalam discussed it with his few friends up to 3 am. Since he was fully involved in two national missions and those were in advanced stages, he could not leave his team to enter the political system.


The next morning, he went to 7 Safdarjung Road, where the PM was staying, and told him that he along with his team was busy with two major programmes (Agni Missile system and nuclear programme through a series of tests in partnership with the Department of Atomic Energy) of national interest. He rejected the PM's offer showing that his work comes first ahead of politics.  


The book said that Vajapyee appreciated Kalam's feelings and told him to go ahead with his task.


"My declining to accept the Cabinet position enabled me to contribute to two major national programmes that gave spectacular results to the nation," he said.


The book also reveals that Kalam was invited by the then Tamil Nadu Governor Chenna Reddy to become the Vice Chancellor of Madras University and had also requested the government to approve his appointment as the Vice Chancellor, which he intended to take up after attaining the age of 62.

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