Lal Bahadur Shastri - లాల్ బహదూర్ శాస్త్రి
Date: 23-01-2016
update: 24-01-2016
Now a days our country is waiting for investment by foreign countries for development . Every central and state ministers are going to developed countries and requesting for investment . Our country has been made that we can not live without investment . How our beloved son of India shashtri ji maintained the country top . Now we required leaders like shastri ji .
ప్రస్తుతం మన దేశం లో ఎవరో ఒక దేశం ఇన్వెస్ట్ మెంట్ చేయాలని ఎదురు చూస్తుంది , వారు గాని లేక పెద్ద పెద్ద మన దేశపు పారిశ్రామిక వేత్తలు గాని ఇన్వెస్ట్ చేస్తే గాని దేశం లో మనం బ్రతుక లేమని , దేశం అభివృద్ధి చెందదనే అభిప్రాయానికి తీసుకొని వచ్చారు . కేంద్ర ,రాష్ట్ర మంత్రులు విదేశాలకు వెళ్లి అక్కడి వాళ్ళను మన దేశం లో పెట్టుబడి పెట్టాలని ప్రాధేయ పడు తున్నారు . కాని మన ముద్దు బిడ్డ శాస్త్రి గారు ఆ కాలం లో దేశాన్ని ముందుకు ఎలా ఉంచారు . ప్రస్తుతం మన దేశానికి శాస్త్రి లాంటి మహాను భావులు కావాలి
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Lal Bahadur Shastri
| |
| 2nd Prime Minister of India | |
| In office 9 June 1964 – 11 January 1966 | |
| President | Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan |
| Preceded by | Gulzarilal Nanda |
| Succeeded by | Gulzarilal Nanda |
| Minister of External Affairs | |
| In office 9 June 1964 – 18 July 1964 | |
| Preceded by | Gulzarilal Nanda |
| Succeeded by | Sardar Swaran Singh |
| Minister of Home Affairs | |
| In office 4 April 1961 – 29 August 1963 | |
| Prime Minister | Jawaharlal Nehru |
| Preceded by | Govind Ballabh Pant |
| Succeeded by | Gulzarilal Nanda |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lal Bahadur Varma 2 October 1904 Varanasi, United Provinces,British Raj (now in Uttar Pradesh, India) |
| Died | 11 January 1966 (aged 61) Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union (now in Uzbekistan) |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse(s) | Lalita Devi |
| Residence | 10 Janpath, New Delhi[1] |
| Alma mater | Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth |
| Profession | Academic Activist |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Awards | Bharat Ratna 1966 (Posthumous) |
Shastri ( 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was the Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a leader of the Indian National Congress party.
Shastri joined the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. Deeply impressed and influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he became a loyal follower, first of Gandhi, and then of Jawaharlal Nehru. Following independence in 1947, he joined the latter's government and became one of Prime Minister Nehru's principal lieutenants, first as Railways Minister (1951–56), and then in a variety of other functions, including Home Minister. Shastri was chosen as Nehru's successor owing to his adherence to Nehruvian socialism after Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi turned down Congress President K. Kamaraj's offer of premiership.
Shastri as Prime Minister continued Nehru's policies of non-alignment and socialism. He led the country during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. His slogan of "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" ("Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer") became very popular during the war and is remembered even today. The war formally ended with the Tashkent Agreement of 10 January 1966; he died of a heart attack the following day, still in Tashkent.
Early years (1904–1917)
Lal Bahadur was born on October 2nd, 1904 at Mughalsarai, seven miles from Kashi. His parents were Sharada Prasad and Ramdulari Devi. They were agriculturists. Srivastava was part of Lal Bahadur's name. He dropped that part indicating his caste when he grew up. He did not like such indications of caste.
Lal Bahadurs father was a poor teacher at first. Then he became a clerk in the Revenue Office at Allahabad. Here, too, he earned very little. But, even though he was poor, he never accepted bribes. He lived a life of honesty and integrity.In April 1906, When Shastri was hardly one year old, his father, had only recently been promoted to the post of deputy tahsildar, died in an epidemic of bubonic plague.
. Shastri's paternal ancestors had been in the serviceof the zamindar ofRamnagar near Varanasi and Shastri lived there for the first one year of his life. Shastri's father, Sharada Prasad Shrivastava, was a school teacher who later became a clerk in the revenue office at Allahabad, while his mother, Ramdulari Devi, was the daughter of Munshi Hazari Lal, the headmaster and English teacher at a railway school in Mughalsarai. Shastri was the second child and eldest son of his parents; he had an elder sister, Kailashi Devi (b. 1900).
Ramdulari Devi, then only 23 and pregnant with her third child, took her two children and moved from Ramnnagar to her father's house in Mughalsarai and settled there for good. She gave birth to a daughter, Sundari Devi, in July 1906.ever,
Lal Bahadur's grandfather Hazari Lai's family was very large. His brothers, their wives and children, besides his own children and grand children, lived under the same roof. It was a small world in itself and Hazari Lai was the fountain of love and affection to all of them. He looked after every one in the family with love. He was especially fond of little Lal Bahadur. He always affectionately called him 'Nanhe' which means 'tiny'.
An interesting incident took place when Lal Bahadur was only three months old. The mother went to bathe in the holy Ganga with her child. In the milling crowd at the bathing ghat she lost her child. The child had slipped from his mother's arms into a cowherd's basket. The cowherd had no children, So he took the child as a gift from God and celebrated the event with great joy.
The mother was lost in grief. A complaint was lodged with the police. They traced the child. The foster parents wept bitterly to give back the child. Lal Bahadur, who was destined to govern the country, narrowly missed the 'good fortune' of becoming a cowherd.
Lal Bahadur stayed at his grandfather's house till he was ten. By that time he had passed the sixth standard examination. There was no high school in that place. They sent him to Kashi for further education.
Courage and self-respect were two virtues, which took deep root in him from his childhood. While in Kashi, he went with his friends to see a fair on the other bank of the Ganga. On the way back he had no money for the boat fare. His self-respect did not allow him to ask his friends for money. He slipped from their company without their knowledge. His friends forgot him in their talk and boarded the boat. When the boat had moved away, Lal Bahadur jumped into the river; as his friends watched breathlessly he swam to the other bank safely.
Though Lal Bahadur was, a man of small build, he was unusually strong. His moral strength was even greater. As in water so in life he swam quite successfully. Twice he was about to be drowned but was saved. It is said that when he was saved the second time, he had his teacher’s three-year-old baby on his shoulders.
Hazari Lal himself died from a stroke in mid-1908, after which the family were looked after by his brother (Shastri's great-uncle) Darbari Lal, who was the head clerk in the opium regulation department at Ghazipur, and later by his son (Ramdulari Devi's cousin) Bindeshwari Prasad, a school teacher in Mughalsarai. Thus, the greatness of the traditional Indian joint family system, and the traditions of family responsibility and kinship, are deeply evident in Shastri's case, where the orphan child of a penniless widow was raised by his distant relatives in a manner which enabled him to become Prime Minister of India.
In Shastri's family, as with many Kayastha families, it was the custom in that era for children to receive an education in theUrdu language and culture. This is because Urdu/Persian had been the language of government for centuries, before being replaced by English, and old traditions persisted into the 20th century. Therefore, Shastri began his education at the age of four under the tutelage of a maulvi (a Muslim cleric), Budhan Mian, at the East Central Railway Inter college in Mughalsarai. He studied there until the sixth standard. In 1917, Bindeshwari Prasad (who was now head of the household) was transferred to Varanasi, and the entire family moved there, including Ramdulari Devi and her three children. In Varanasi, Shastri joining the seventh standard at Harish Chandra High School. At this time, he decided to drop his caste-derived surname of "Varma" (which is a traditional optional surname for all Kayastha families).
Lal Bahadur acquired virtues likeboldness, love of adventure, patience, self-control, courtesy and selflessness in hischildhood.
Even as a boy he loved to read books. He read whatever books he came across, whether he understood them or not. He was fond of Guru Nanak's verses.
He used to repeat the following lines often:
"0 Nanak! Be tiny like grass,
For other plants will whither away, but grass will remain ever green."
An incident, which took place when he was six years old, seems to have left a deep mark on his mind. Once he went to an orchard with his friends. He was standing below while his friends climbed the trees. He plucked a flower from a bush.
The gardener came in the meantime and saw Lal Bahadur. The boys on the trees climbed down and ran away. The gardener caught Lal Bahadur. He beat him severely.
Lal Bahadur wept and said, "I am orphan. Do not beat me."
The gardener smiled with pity and said, "Because you are an orphan, you must learn better behavior, my boy."
The words of the gardener had a great effect on him. He swore to him, "I shall behave better in future. Because I am an orphan I must learn good behavior."
Though short he was not timid at school. All boys were friendly with him. Like the grass he always looked fresh and smiling. Not only during his school days but also in his later life he did not hate anyone. It seems he used to act in plays at school. He played the role of Kripacharya in the play 'Mahabharatha'. Kripacharya was in the court of Duryodhana and yet was loved by the Pandavas. Lal Bahadur Shastri had acquired the same worth.
Even when Lal Bahadur was a student of Harischandra. High School at Varanasi a whirlwind had disturbed India.
Everywhere there was the cry of 'Freedom'! "Swaraj is our birth right" - Bala Gangadhara Tilak had declared. This had become the nation's battlecry.
Lal Bahadur reverenced Tilak. He longed to see him and hear his speech. Once Tilak visited Varanasi. Lal Bahadur was away in a village fifty miles from Varanasi. He borrowed money and traveled in a train to see and hear Tilak. He saw him and heard his speech. It reverberated in his ears like Krishna's conch, thePanchajanya. Like Bharata, carrying Rama's sandals on his head, Lal Bahadur carried Tilak's message in his heart. This message guided him all through his life.The greatest influence on Lal Bahadur was that of Mahatma Gandhi. Lal Bahadur was electrified when he heard a speech of Gandhi at Varanasi in 1915. Then and there he dedicated his life to the service of the country.
In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi launched the non-cooperation movement against British Government and declared that the country would not cooperate with the Government in its unjust rule. Lal Bahadur was then only seventeen years. When Mahatma Gandhi gave a call to the youth to come out of Government schools and colleges, offices and courts and to sacrifice everything for the sake of freedom, Lal Bahadur came out of his school.
His mother and other relatives advised him not to give up his studies. But Lal Bahadur was firm in his decision -Lai Bahadur joined the procession, which disobeyed the prohibitory order. The police arrested him. But as he was too young, he was let off.
Lal Bahadur did not go back to his school. He became a student of Kashi Vidya Peeth. During his four years' stay there, he made excellent progress. Dr.Bhagawandas's lectures on philosophy went straight to his heart. In later life Lal Bahadur displayed surprising poise in the midst of conflict and confusion. This he learnt from his teacher, Bhagawandas.
It was in 1926 that Lal Bahadur got the degree of 'Shastri' and left the Kashi Vidya Peeth. The whole country became the arena of his activity. He became the life- member of The Servants of the People Society, which Lala Lajpat Rai had started in 1921. The aim of the Society was to train youths that were prepared to dedicate their lives to the service of the country.
The young satyagrahi (1921–1945)
While Shastri's family had no links to the independence movement then taking shape, among his teachers at Harish Chandra High School was an intensely patriotic and highly respected teacher named Nishkameshwar Misra, who gave Shastri much-needed financial support by allowing him to tutor his children. Inspired by Misra's patriotism, Shastri took a deep interest in the freedom struggle, and began to study its history and the works of several of its noted personalities, including those of Swami Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gandhi and Annie Besant. In January 1921, when Shastri was in the 10 standard and three months from sitting the final examinations, he attended a public meeting in Benares hosted by Gandhi and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. Inspired by the Mahatma's call for students to withdraw from government schools and join the non-cooperation movement, Shastri withdrew from Harish Chadra the next day and joined the local branch of the Congress Party as a volunteer, actively participating in picketing and anti-government demonstrations. He was soon arrested and jailed, but was then let off as he was still a minor.[6][7] Shastri's immediate supervisor was a formerBenares Hindu University lecturer named J.B. Kripalani, who would become one of the most prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement and among Gandhi's closest followers. Recognising the need for the younger volunteers to continue their educations, Kripalani and a friend, V.N. Sharma, had founded an informal school centered around "nationalist education" to educate the young activists in their nation's heritage. With the support of a wealthy philanthropist and ardent Congress nationalist, Shiv Prasad Gupta, the Kashi Vidyapith was inaugurated by Gandhi in Benares as a national institution of higher education on 10 February 1921. Among the first students of the new institution, Shastri graduated with a first-class degree in philosophy and ethics from the Vidyapith in 1925. He was given the title Shastri ("scholar"). The title was a bachelor's degree awarded by the Vidyapith, but it stuck as part of his name.
Shastri enrolled himself as a life member of the Servants of the People Society (Lok Sevak Mandal), founded by Lala Lajpat Rai, and began to work for the betterment of the Harijans under Gandhi's direction at Muzaffarpur. Later he became the President of the Society.
Independence activism
Shastri participated in the Salt Satyagraha in 1930. He was imprisoned for two and a half years. Later, he worked as the Organizing Secretary of the Parliamentary Board of U.P. in 1937. In 1940, he was sent to prison for one year, for offering individual Satyagraha support to the independence movement.
On 8 August 1942, Mahatma Gandhi issued the Quit India speech at Gowalia Tank in Mumbai, demanding that the British leave India. Shastri, who had just then come out after a year in prison, travelled to Allahabad. For a week, he sent instructions to the independence activists from Jawaharlal Nehru's home, Anand Bhavan. A few days later, he was arrested and imprisoned until 1946.Shastri spent almost nine years in jail in total.During his stay in prison, he spent time reading books and became familiar with the works of western philosophers, revolutionaries and social reformers.
Political career (1947–64)
State minister
Following India's independence, Shastri was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in his home state, Uttar Pradesh. He became the Minister of Police and Transport under Govind Ballabh Pant's Chief Ministership on 15 August 1947 followingRafi Ahmed Kidwai's departure to become minister at centre. As the Transport Minister, he was the first to appoint womenconductors. As the minister in charge of the Police Department, he ordered that police use jets of water instead of lathis to disperse unruly crowds.His tenure as police minister (As Home Minister was called prior to 1950) saw successful curbing of communal riots in 1947, mass migration and resettlement of refugees
Cabinet minister
In 1951, Shastri was made the General Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Prime Minister. He was directly responsible for the selection of candidates and the direction of publicity and electioneering activities. He played an important role in the landslide successes of the Congress Party in the Indian General Elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962. In 1952, he successfully contested UP Vidhansabha from Soraon North cum Phulpur West seat and won getting over 69% of vote. He was believed to be retained as home minister of UP, but in a surprise move was called to Centre as minister by Nehru.
He was elected to Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh w.e.f. 3 April 1952. He served as the Minister of Railways and Transportin the Central Cabinet from 13 May 1952 to 7 December 1956. In September 1956, he offered his resignation after a railway accident at Mahbubnagar that led to 112 deaths. However, Nehru did not accept his resignation. Three months later, he resigned accepting moral and constitutional responsibility for a railway accident at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu that resulted in 144 deaths. While speaking in Parliament on the incident, Nehru stated that he was accepting the resignation because it would set an example in constitutional propriety and not because Shastri was in any way responsible for the accident.
As the Railway Minister Shastri installed the 1st Machine at Integral Coach Factory ICF Chennai on 20.02.1955.
In 1957, Shastri returned to the Cabinet following the General Elections, first as the Minister for Transport and Communications, and then as the Minister of Commerce and Industry. In 1961, he became Home Minister As Union Home Minister, he was instrumental in appointing the Committee on Prevention of Corruption under the Chairmanship of K. Santhanam During his tenure as Home Minister he created the famous "Shastri Formula" to contain the language agitations in the states of Assam and Punjab acceptable to all section of people. He handled well the Hazrathbal Mosque sacred missing relic incident in Jammu and Kashmir and the crises between the Chief Minister and his deputy in the state government of Kerala in 1962.
Prime minister of India (1964–66)
Jawaharlal Nehru died in office on 27 May 1964 and left a void. needed] Then Congress Party President K. Kamaraj was instrumental in making Shastri Prime Minister on 9 June. Shastri, though mild-mannered and soft-spoken, was a Nehruviansocialist and thus held appeal to those wishing to prevent the ascent of conservative right-winger Morarji Desai.
In his first broadcast as Prime Minister, on 11 June 1964, Shastri stated:
Domestic policies
Shastri retained many members of Nehru's Council of Ministers. T. T. Krishnamachari was retained as the Finance Minister of India, as was Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan. He appointed Swaran Singh to succeed him as External Affairs Minister. He also appointed Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru and former Congress President, as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Gulzarilal Nanda continued as the Minister of Home Affairs.
Shastri's tenure witnessed the Madras anti-Hindi agitation of 1965. The government of India had for a long time made an effort to establish Hindi as the sole national language of India. This was resisted by the non-Hindi speaking states particularly Madras State. To calm the situation, Shastri gave assurances that English would continue to be used as the official language as long the non-Hindi speaking states wanted. The riots subsided after Shastri's assurance, as did the student agitation.
Economic policies
Shastri continued Nehru's socialist economic policies with central planning. He promoted the White Revolution – a national campaign to increase the production and supply of milk – by supporting the Amul milk co-operative of Anand, Gujarat and creating the National Dairy Development Board.[19]
He visited Anand on 31 October 1964 for inauguration of the Cattle Feed Factory of Amul at Kanjari. As he was keenly interested in knowing the success of this co-operative, he stayed overnight with farmers in a village, and even had dinner with a farmer's family. He discussed his wish with Mr Verghese Kurien, then the General Manager of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd (Amul) to replicate this model to other parts of the country for improving the socio-economic conditions of farmers. As a result of this visit, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was established at Anand in 1965
While speaking on the chronic food shortages across the country, Shastri urged people to voluntarily give up one meal so that the food saved could be distributed to the affected populace. However he ensured that he first implemented the system in his own family before appealing to the country. He went on air to appeal to his countrymen to skip a meal a week. The response to his appeal was overwhelming. Even restaurants and eateries downed the shutters on Monday evenings. Many parts of the country observed the "Shastri Vrat". He motivated the country to maximize the cultivation of food grains by ploughing the lawn himself, at his official residence in New Delhi.
During the 22-day war with Pakistan in 1965, On 19 October 1965, Shastri gave the seminal ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kishan’ ("Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer")slogan at Urwa in Allahabad that became a national slogan.
Underlining the need to boost India's food production. Shastri also promoted the Green Revolution. Though he was a socialist, Shastri stated that India cannot have a regimented type of economy.
The Food Corporation of India was set up under the Food Corporation's Act 1964. Also The National Agricultural Products Board Act.
Jai Jawan Jai Kisan
For the outstanding slogan given by him during Indo-Pak war of 1965 Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India)commemorated Shastriji even after 47 years of his death on his 48th martyr's day:
shastri ji working in flight
Foreign policies
Shastri continued Nehru policy of non-alignment but also built closer relations with the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of theSino-Indian War of 1962 and the formation of military ties between the Chinese People's Republic and Pakistan, Shastri's government decided to expand the defence budget of India's armed forces.
In 1964, Shastri signed an accord with the Sri Lankan Prime minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike regarding the status of Indian Tamils in the then Ceylon. This agreement is also known as the Sirima-Shastri Pact or the Bandaranaike-Shastri pact
Under the terms of this agreement, 600,000 Indian Tamils were to be repatriated, while 375,000 were to be granted Sri Lankan citizenship. This settlement was to be done by 31 October 1981. However, after Shastri's death, by 1981, India had taken only 300,000 Tamils as repatriates, while Sri Lanka had granted citizenship to only 185,000 citizens (plus another 62,000 born after 1964). Later, India declined to consider any further applications for citizenship, stating that the 1964 agreement had lapsed
India’s relationship with Burma had been strained after the 1962 Military coup followed by the repatriation of many Indian families in 1964 by Burma. While the central government in New Delhi monitored the overall process of repatriation and arranged for identification and transportation of the Indian returnees from Burma, it fell under the responsibilities of local governments to provide adequate facilities to shelter the repatriates upon disembarkation on Indian soil. Particularly in the Madras State the Chief Minister during that time Mr. Minjur K. Bhaktavatsalam showed great care in rehabilitation of the returnees. In December 1965 Lal Bahadur Shastri made an official visit with his Family to Rangoon, Burma and re-established cordial relations with the country’s military government of General Ne Win.
War with Pakistan
Shastri's greatest moment came when he led India in the 1965 Indo-Pak War.
Laying claim to half the Kutch peninsula, the Pakistani army skirmished with Indian forces in August, 1965. In his report to the Lok Sabha on the confrontation in Kutch, Shastri stated:
In September 1965, major incursions of militants and Pakistani soldiers began, hoping not only to break down the government but incite a sympathetic revolt. The revolt did not happen, and India sent its forces across the Ceasefire Line (now Line of Control) and threatened Pakistan by crossing the International Border near Lahore as war broke out on a general scale. Massive tank battles occurred in the Punjab, and while the Pakistani forces made gains in the northern part of subcontinent, Indian forces captured the key post at Haji Pir, in Kashmir, and brought the Pakistani city of Lahore under artillery and mortar fire.
On 17 September 1965, while the Indo-Pak war was on, India received a letter from China alleging that the Indian army had set up army equipment in Chinese territory, and India would face China's wrath, unless the equipment was pulled down. In spite of the threat of aggression from China, Shastri declared "China's allegation is untrue".The Chinese did not respond, but the Indo-Pak war resulted in some 3–4,000 casualties on each side and significant loss of material.
The Indo-Pak war ended on 23 September 1965 with a United Nations-mandated ceasefire. In a broadcast to the nation on the day the of ceasefire, Shastri stated:
Tashkent - Treaty
Some big nations feared that, if India won a total victory over Pakistan, it would lower their prestige. The Security Council of the United Nations Organization called on India and Pakistan to stop fighting.
On the invitation of Kosygin, the Premier of Soviet Russia, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayub Khan met in Tashkent on January 4, 1966. The leaders agreed that their armies should withdraw to the old Cease-fire Line in Kashmir and that the two countries should live in peace and friendship.
Many people in India felt that we should not return the territory taken from Pakistan- occupied Kashmir. They argued that the entire Kashmir belonged to India. But Shastriji wished to give one more chance to Pakistan to live in peace and friendship with India. So he signed the treaty of friendship.
| China Cannot Frighten Us'Just at this time another danger threatened India. China sent a letter, which said, "The Indian army has set up army equipment in Chinese territory. India should pull down this equipment. Otherwise it will have to face the wrath of China." |
China Cannot Frighten Us'Just at this time another danger threatened India. China sent a letter, which said, "The Indian army has set up army equipment in Chinese territory. India should pull down this equipment. Otherwise it will have to face the wrath of China."
|
China's allegations were a bundle of lies. If India removed the military equipment she would be admitting that China's charges were true. Also, that would mean India was afraid of China. Even the big nations waited breathlessly to see what Lal Bahadur would say and what India would do.Lal Bahadur did not take long to give a reply. The letter from China was received on the morning of 17th September 1965. He made a statement in the Parliament the same afternoon. He declared: "China's allegation is untrue. If China attacks India it is our firm resolve to fight for our freedom. The might of China will not deter us from defending our territorial integrity." China kept quiet. India's soldiers had no fear of death and fought most splendidly and heroically. The army and the air force functioned like the two arms of a single body. The invaders were beaten. The Pakistani army could not stand against the Indian army. It was then that, for the first time, the world came to realize the supremacy of the Indian army. Shastriji is Immortal Shastriji had suffered heart attacks twice before. And during the period of the Pakistan war and the following days, his body, already battered, had to bear a very heavy strain. He signed the joint Declaration on 10th January 1966. He died the same night. The news of Lal Bahadur Shastri's death struck India like a bolt from the blue. The entire nation was plunged in grief. Some people suspected foulplay also. Gone was the war hero and the messenger of peace, gone was the great statesman who restored to India her honor and self- respect in the assembly of nations. A tiny, tidy figure. A soul that had lived in perfect purity of thought, word and deed. The very embodiment of selflessness, detachment and simplicity. Such was this man who had lived in our midst. He belongs to the race of the heroes of India. |
During his tenure as Prime Minister, Shastri visited many countries including Russia, Yugoslavia, England, Canada, Nepal, Egypt and Burma. Incidentally while returning from the Non Alliance Conference in Cairo on the invitation of then President of the Pakistan Ayub Khan to have lunch with him, Shastri made a stop over at Karachi Airport for few hours and breaking from the protocol Mr.Ayub Khan personally received him at the Airport and had an informal meeting during October 1964. After the declaration of ceasefire with Pakistan in 1965, Shastri and Pakistani President Muhammad Ayub Khanattended a summit in Tashkent (former USSR, now in modern Uzbekistan), organized by Alexei Kosygin. On 10 January 1966, Shastri and Khan signed the Tashkent Declaration.
Death
Prime Minister Shastri died in Tashkent, at 2 AM on the day after signing the Tashkent Declaration, reportedly due to a heart attack, but people allege conspiracy behind the death. He was the first Prime Minister of India to die overseas. He was eulogised as a national hero and the Vijay Ghat memorial established in his memory. Upon his death,Gulzarilal Nanda once again assumed the role of Acting Prime Minister until theCongress Parliamentary Party elected Indira Gandhi over Morarji Desai to officially succeed Shastri.
Mystery behind Lal Bahadur Shastri's death
Shastri's sudden death immediately after signing the Tashkent Pact with Pakistanraised many questions in the minds of Indian citizens. The Prime Minister of India going to Tashkent for a pact and never coming back has not been accepted easily by Indian citizens. His health was fit as per his personal physician, Dr. R. N. Chugh, and he had no sign of heart trouble before.
Shastri's sudden death has led to persistent conspiracy theories that he was poisoned.[26] The first inquiry into his death, conducted by the Raj Narain Inquiry, as it came to be known, however did not come up with any conclusions, and today no record of this inquiry exists with the Indian Parliament's library. It was alleged that no post-mortem was done on Shastri, but the Indian government in 2009, claimed it did have a report of a medical investigation conducted by Shastri's personal physician, Dr. R. N. Chugh, and some Russian doctors. Furthermore, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) revealed that there was no record of any destruction or loss of documents in the PMO having a bearing on Shastri's death. The Russian butler attending on Shastri at the time of his death was arrested for suspected poisoning but released later as per the news source. It was maintained that Shastri had died of cardiac arrest but his family insisted he was poisoned.
After Shastri's death (aged 62) in Tashkent, USSR, on 11 January 1966, soon after signing the Tashkent Pact with Pakistan, his wife Lalita Shastri had alleged he was poisoned. An epic poetry book in Hindi titled Lalita Ke Aansoo written by Krant M. L. Verma was published in 1978.In this book, the tragic story about the death of Shastri has been narrated by his wifeLalita Shastri.[31] There are still serious doubts surrounding the nature of his death. His son, Sunil Shastri, asked the government to unravel the mystery behind Lal Bahadur Shastri's death.[32] Raising doubts about the dark blue spots and cut marks on the abdomen of his father's body after his death in 1966, Sunil asked how the cut marks appeared if a post-mortem had not been conducted.
When Shastri went to the USSR for the Tashkent talks, he wanted a promise from Ayub Khan that Pakistan would never use force in the future. But the talks did not proceed and followed Shastri’s Death on the next day.[33] The Indian Government released no information about his death, and the media then was kept silent. The possible existence of a conspiracy was covered in India by the Outlook magazine.[27][27] A query was later posed by Anuj Dhar, author of CIA's Eye on South Asia, under the Right to Information Act to declassify a document supposedly related to Shastri's death, but the Prime Minister's Office refused to oblige, reportedly citing that this could lead to harming of foreign relations, cause disruption in the country and cause breach of parliamentary privileges. Another RTI plea by Kuldip Nayar was also declined, as PMO cited exemption from disclosure on the plea. The home ministry is yet to respond to queries whether India conducted a post-mortem on Shastri, and if the government had investigated allegations of foul play. The Delhi Police in their reply to an RTI application said they do not have any record pertaining to Shastri's death. The Ministry of External Affairs has already said no post-mortem was conducted in the USSR. The Central Public Information Officer of Delhi Police in his reply dated 29 July said, "No such record related to the death of the former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri is available in this district... Hence the requisite information pertaining to New Delhi district may please be treated as nil.] This has created more doubts.
The PMO answered only two questions of the RTI application, saying it has only one classified document pertaining to the death of Shastri, which is exempted from disclosure under the RTI Act. It sent the rest of the questions to the Ministry of External Affairs and Home Ministry to answer. The MEA said the only document from the erstwhile Soviet Government is "the report of the Joint Medical Investigation conducted by a team comprising Dr. R. N. Chugh, Doctor in-Attendance to the PM and some Russian doctors" and added no post-mortem was conducted in the USSR. The Home Ministry referred the matter to Delhi Police and National Archives for the response pertaining to any post-mortem conducted on the body of Shastri in India. Sunil Shastri, son of the former Prime Minister, called the transferring of application as "absurd" and "silly joke". "He (Lal Bahadur Shastri) died as sitting Prime Minister. It sounds very silly that MHA is referring the matter of death of second Prime Minister of India to a district level police." He also demanded that "It should be looked into by highest authorities like President, Prime Minister and home minister."
Later, Gregory Douglas, a journalist who interviewed former CIA operative, Robert Crowley, over a period of 4 years, recorded their telephonic conversations and published its transcribe in a book titled, "Conversations with the Crow". In the book, Crowley claimed that CIA was responsible for eliminating Dr. Homi Bhabha, Indian nuclear scientist whose plane crashed into Alps, when he was going to attend a conference in Vienna and Lal Bahadur Shastri, who died at Tashkent summit in 1966. Crowley said that USA was wary of India's rigid stand on nuclear policy and then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri, who wanted to go ahead with nuclear tests. He also said that agency was more worried about collective domination of Indo-Russian over the region, for which a strong deterrent was required.
Family and Descendants
On 16 May 1928, Shastri married Lalita Devi a lady from Mirzapur. The marriage, which was arranged by their parents in the traditional Indian way, was harmonious and conventional. The couple were blessed with four sons and two daughters, namely
- Kusum Shastri, the eldest daughter
- Hari Krishna Shastri, eldest son, who was married to Vibha Shastri
- Suman Shastri, second daughter, married to Vijay Nath Singh. Her son, Siddharth Nath Singh, is a spokesman of theBharatiya Janata Party
- Anil Shastri. He is married to Manju Shastri. Alone in his family, he remains a member of his father's Congress Party. His son Adarsh Shastri gave up his corporate career with Apple Inc to contest the General elections of 2014 fromAllahabad on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket. He lost that election.[38]
- Sunil Shastri. He is married to Meera Shastri. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
- Ashok Shastri, the youngest son. He worked in the corporate world before his untimely death at the age of 37.[39] His wife Neera Shastri and his son Sameep Shastri are members of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
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