By IANS
New Delhi : When outgoing President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam posed a question on the Internet about ways to curb terrorism, he got an overwhelming 30,000 responses from people across the country.
Kalam, called the 'People's President', put forth the question "What should we do to free our planet from terrorism?" on Yahoo! India Answers six months ago. And thousands of people replied, including the likes of senior police officer Kiran Bedi, tennis player Leander Paes and spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Immensely popular with children, the president got 15,000 responses from school students alone. Kalam has selected 10 best answers by kids and the winners will get an educational tour of the Silicon Valley in the US.
The two best answers he chose from the 30,000 were by Sugato Mitra and Karthik Durairajan. The results were declared by Yahoo! Tuesday.
"Of the shortlist put together by the (Yahoo! India) editorial team, I have selected two answers by Sugato Mitra and Karthik Durairajan as one and two, in that order. In my opinion, to a certain extent, possible solutions emerge from a combination of these two answers," Kalam said.
"I have selected these answers from the participants based on their depth of thinking and action oriented suggestions," he added.
Mitra, the 41-year-old winner from Durgapur in West Bengal, had suggested that in order to curb terrorism the problems of the people of sensitive areas be addressed directly by the government.
Whether it is by setting up institutes of excellence or industries, the people of such places should be taken along with the rest of the country in its march towards progress and prosperity.
"A check on population growth, quality education and living standards, development and employment opportunities for the youth, respect for humanity, and universal human values will ultimately wipe out terrorism one day", Mitra's reply read.
"We are delighted with the enthusiastic response to Dr. Kalam's question on the Internet. This thought provoking question has encouraged thousands of netizens to share their views," said George Zacharias, managing director of Yahoo! India.