Hyderabad, Jul 27 (PTI) Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday paid rich tributes to former President A P J Abdul Kalam on his fifth death anniversary and recalled his stellar contributions to the country.

Kalam always emphasised on building a 'beautiful society, which is tolerant to the opinions, beliefs, culture and lifestyle of others, and creating such a society would be a real tribute to the great soul, an official release quoted her as having said.

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The Governor participated as the chief guest in the "5th Year Remembrance Day-A Digital Tribute' programme, organised by the A P J Abdul Kalam International Foundation (AKIF), Rameswaram, through video conference from the lawns of the Raj Bhavan here, it said.

Though Kalam made his mark in various roles as President, missile man of India, space scientist, writer and innovator, he always wanted to be remembered as a teacher which shows the importance given by him to life-long learning, motivating and igniting minds, Soundararajan said.

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Referring to the fact thatKalam could not become the President for the second consecutive term, she saidit was a great loss to the nation, especially to the youth.

"The country would have benefited immensely had he been made the president for the second time," the Governor said.

The former president was a nuclear scientist, writer, poet and educationist,who had excelled in different fields and served the nation till his demise this day five years ago.

He was conferred with the Bharat Ratna for his contribution to nuclear science and came to be known as the people's president.

The Governor said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always held Kalam in high esteem.

The Prime Minister, she said, is on a mission to realise many objectives of Kalam like building Digital India, turning India into a knowledge-super power and creating a strong and self-reliant nation.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)