Hyderabad, July 14: Invited by Andhra Pradesh Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy to address MLAs in the Assembly, A.P.J Abdul Kalam landed here this morning armed with a number of ideas.

But he was nearly knocked off course by a query from an MLA after having spoken to legislators for an hour in the Assembly precincts. Janata Party legislator K. Ramulu wanted to know if the President would recommend Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for a Bharat Ratna for having declined the Prime Minister’s post two months ago.

As angry Congress members looked on, an embarrassed Kalam sidestepped the question, saying deserving people were usually not interested in awards.

The President faced another ticklish question, this time from BJP MLA G. Kishan Reddy. Asked how corruption in public life could be curbed, Kalam replied: “Only three persons can help curb corruption. Your father, mother and the teacher.”

The interactive session drew to a close with software engineer-turned-Congress MLA . Neelavati, 25, asking him: “What is your (most) joyous and proud moment in life?” “Speaking to (the) youth and students always brought joy to me. My proud(est) moment was when my team of scientists could send the first SLV into space,” came the reply.

During the nearly half-an-hour-long session, some MLAs asked Kalam about the impact of globalisation while others asked him to do something about farmer suicides in the state.

But virtually all legislators missed the import of his hour-long lecture, aided by a power-point presentation, on how Andhra could retain its place as one of India’s progressive states. None had a question on the 10-point technology mission he had suggested or on the development mode he suggested.

Leader of the Opposition . Chandrababu Naidu, who used to point out that he had suggested Kalam’s name for the presidency two years ago, also kept mum. He later submitted to Kalam a memorandum on the serious post-poll violence in Andhra. He also spoke about child labourers working at a Congress Rajya Sabha MP’s factory in the city.

But Naidu was happy that the Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy government had iterated the importance of information technology in rural development even if it has pushed it to the backburner.

Kalam, the second President to address the Andhra Assembly after Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy in 1978, said the only remedy for an integrated rural development was to take connectivity to the state’s rural areas.

The President put forth a roadmap that stressed on improving connectivity to spread agricultural practices further, monitoring the weather, promotion of agro-processing and bio-fuel crops, wasteland development, power and communications to villages as well as farm insurance.