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WORLD  Muslim Scholar Set To Win India Presidency FROM REUTERS INDIA, Jul 16 (VNN) — By Sanjeev Miglani - Reuters, Monday, July 15, 2002; 10:19 AM NEW DELHI-Voting by lawmakers for India's new national president ended Monday with a Muslim who is the father of the country's nuclear missile program certain to win. The surprise nomination of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for the mainly ceremonial post by the ruling Hindu nationalist-led coalition was backed by all parties except the communists and his election was seen as a formality. An election commission official said the ballot boxes had been sealed at the end of the day-long vote in parliament and state legislatures around the country. The votes will be counted Thursday and the result announced that day. "I'm feeling fantastic," Kalam, 71, told reporters as lawmakers lined up to vote in parliament. Kalam, known for his long gray hair and ability to recite from the Koran and the Hindu holy scripture Bhagavadgita with equal ease, was nominated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last month after India's worst religious violence in a decade. Political analysts said the choice of Kalam, plucked from academia after retiring from government, was aimed at silencing critics of the ruling Hindu nationalists, pilloried at home and abroad for the violence in which at least 1,000 people, many of them Muslims, died. Full story URL > Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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