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India will use nuclear weapons if threatened: Kalam

President A P J Abdul Kalam on Thursday said that despite 'no first use' policy, India will use nuclear weapons when peace is threatened and some other country uses against it.

"When two of our neighbours have got nuclear weapons, naturally for India, to protect peace, we have to have it," he said.

The President mingled with children at Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan answering questions, which ranged from his vision to make India a developed nation to how to stop brain drain and development of the northeast.

A missile technologist, Kalam appeared like a teacher for sometime when he went to the big slide screen to explain his 'Vision for India'.

A loud applause reverberated in the huge hall when acclaimed music director A R Rahman composed a song based on Kalam's Ignited Minds, which was sung by a group of children.

Replying to a question from a youngster whether the government could use the funds spent on testing missiles in Chandipur for the poor, the President said that the spending was not much and it was for the defence and security of the country, which were important.

Describing some of the questions from the students as 'fantastic' and 'beautiful', he disagreed with a young questioner that there was a brain drain towards multinationals and there was lack of incentives in the government sector for the youth.

"Indian companies should become multinationals. There are IT companies in the country. I don't believe brain drain continues. India produces 200,000 engineers and 100,000 scientists. 15,000 or 20,000 people leaving does not harm the country," he said.

Citing a large number of Indians and Chinese working in the Silicon Valley, the President said, "Movement in the global world is nothing wrong."

Stating he had completed his mission of interacting with 1,00,000 school children across the length and breadth of the country, Kalam said some children wanted to see India as a developed nation, some others wanted to work for the unity of minds and some more wanted to serve the nation.

"I feel when young minds are ignited, it will be a powerful resource... behind failure there may be several reasons but behind success, there is hard work," he said.

To another question on the insurgency problem in the northeast, the President said that insurgency would vanish when development takes place.

Stating that he had visited almost all the northeastern states, Kalam said the region possessed tremendous resources.

Arunachal Pradesh itself produces 30,000 MW of power, he said.

Besides the region was blessed with vast bio-diversity and craftsmanship, he said calling for integrated development of all states in the region.

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