A quote attributed to the late former President APJ Abdul Kalam is widely shared on social media claiming that Kalam had stated that Network Marketing is the fastest growing business of 21st century. This quote attributed to Abdul Kalam reads, “Network Marketing is the final growing business of 21st century which must be joined by every young man and women globally otherwise you can never get the best of your youth age”. A few users shared a video clip of Abdul Kalam while making the same claim on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: APJ Abdul Kalam’s statements praising Network Marketing.
Fact: Abdul Kalam did not make any such statement stating Network Marketing as the fastest growing business of 21st century. Sharing an edited video clip of Abdul Kalam’s conversation with students on 15 August 2006, several multi-level marketing sites and their associates misled the public that APJ Abdul Kalam had recommended every young man to join Network Marketing. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam had made any such statement about Network Marketing, we could not find any news reports confirming that this statement was made by Abdul Kalam. If APJ Abdul Kalam had made such a statement, several mainstream news websites would have reported that information.
Several social media users shared a video clip of Abdul Kalam while making the same claim on social media. We found the extended version of this video on a Facebook page. The extended version of the video shows Abdul Kalam responding to a student’s question, “How do you assess the last four years of your Presidency?”. Responding to this question, Abdul Kalam said, “I targeted two things. Number one that India as a developed nation before 2021 mission. I will say this marketing process is going in full steam and definitely I am happy with the outcome”. Abdul Kalam mentioned the word ‘marketing’ referring to his 2021 mission campaign. The student did not pose any questions related to Network Marketing for Abdul Kalam to answer about it.
The video shows Abdul Kalam’s conversation with students on Independence Day in 2006. A few other video clips from Abdul Kalam’s conversation with students on 15 August 2006 can be seen here and here. Several digital marketing and business consultancy pages published videos clarifying that Abdul Kalam had not made any such statement stating Network Marketing as the fastest growing business of 21st century.
Srijan Pal Singh, the former OSD to Abdul Kalam and who co-authored several books with him, confirmed to Factly that this statement about Network Marketing was not made by former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
To sum it up, APJ Abdul Kalam hasn’t stated that Network Marketing is the fastest growing business of 21st century.
