NEW DELHI, June 19: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, India’s colourful rocket scientist, on Wednesday came across more as a professor than a politician in his first encounter with the local and international media since being nominated for the country’s presidency.

He fielded questions with aplomb, however, and made sure that he did not get cornered on sensitive issues such as the recent communal violence in Gujarat or the current military stand-off with Pakistan.

“Please smile ... a smile does not cost anything,” was Kalam’s first advice to journalists crammed into a hall for his first press conference since he filed his nomination papers on Tuesday.

The 71-year-old Kalam, whose long silvery hair has made him a favoured target of newspaper cartoonists, brushed aside a question on India-Pakistan relations saying it was “a very sensitive issue” on which Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had already made a statement.

“We should not discuss this any further,” he said abruptly.

In his opening remarks, the casually-dressed Kalam thanked the various political groups who had supported his candidature for president, saying the top job represented the “integrated aspirations of the nation”.

He then described his surprise nomination for president 11 days ago in terms he knows best: “The whole process appeared to me like the launch campaign for a rocket system to put a satellite into orbit or a missile system to reach its target.”

Despite his certain elevation to the post of president, Kalam said he would not renounce his first love — for science.

Rather, “When I am elected as president, I will endeavour to use technology ... as one of the tools to develop the nation,” he said.

Dismissing suggestions that he lacked the necessary political experience for the post, Kalam said he would learn on the job.

“Let me understand what is (the) political system. I have worked with six prime ministers in the last ten years,” he said, adding however that once he is elected president in what will be a mere formality on July 15 “the intensity of work with the political system will increase and I will learn”.

He dismissed criticism that his elevation to the post of president would send “wrong signals” because he was a missile technologist.

On the recent sectarian clashes in Gujarat, Kalam said it was “very painful,” and “we should prevent it at all costs”.

He, however, refused to be drawn into questions as to whether the local government had tried its best to stem the rioting.

When asked what was the solution to communal tension, Kalam said a combination of 100 percent literacy, economic development and mutual respect for each other was the only way to prevent sectarian unrest.

At one point, the press conference threatened to descend into chaos, as Kalam, used to being an academic more than a politician, requested journalists to depart from their usual practice of asking questions followed by his answers.

“Rather, you tell me your questions and I will list them in my brain and give you the answers, at one go, later,” Kalam said, which brought forth a volley of questions and protests from the assembled journalists.

The unruly scenes prompted Indian Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan to warn Kalam that “this method would not work”.

At the end of the allotted 30 minutes, Kalam was inclined to take more questions from journalists, but Mahajan broke up the media conference. —AFP