Life of Lal Bahadur Shastri ji

Lal Bahadur Shastri (Image: India.com)

After the death of India’s first Prime Minister Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru on May 17, 1964 a very big question arrived in front of the country. The question was that who will now become Prime Minister of India.

Gulzarilal Nanda was made caretaker Prime Minister of India. At that point of time, K .Kamraj was the speaker of cabinet and the decision for choice of Prime Minister lied on him strongly. Morarji Desai wanted to become the Prime Minister of India but due to his past records and his immediate responses, K. Kamraj and many other ministers didn’t want him to take that position. On the other hand, Lal Bahadur Shastri had come into cabinet through portfolio and this was in its favor that more people were in his support.

Morarji Desai wanted voting but K. Kamraj said that it could spoil the image of party, so he personally conversed with many ministers and on June 1, 1964 he told Morarji Desai about the decision for which Morarji Desai had to agree. Majority was on the favor of Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Then, our country got its second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. He belonged to a very poor family. His own daughter had died because they hadn’t enough money to buy medicines. He took loan to buy a small car when he became Prime Minister.

On June 2, 1964 Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri took oath and took India in his hands. With this, K. Kamraj also put Cabinet above Prime Minister’s powers. Now, Lal Bahadur Shastri couldn’t exercise the powers that Nehru used to.

People used to call him weak. On his first press conference, some journalists talked to him as if he was a low ranked person and not a Prime Minister. He felt offended and never did any Press conference after this.

In cabinet, various ministers used to offend him and he didn’t get respect which he deserved. Lal Bahadur Shastri has never feared of any critic but always found anything for improvement.

In 1964-1965, India was suffering from Food disaster. He gave a new idea to the country at that time. The idea was to fast a day in a week. He gave this idea after trying on his own children. When he found that his children too can live without food for a day, he decided to announce this idea publicly.

At his own residence, in his lawn, he did farming with bulls himself. He gave message to people that the land possessed by them should be used effectively to produce food.

In 1965, Pakistan crossed international border in Gujarat and occupied Rann of Kutch and took away 75 sq. kilometers of area. It was on August 5 that Lal Bahadur Shastri said that Pakistan’s President Ayub Khan wanted to fight and we can’t leave them without teaching them any lesson in a talk with ministers at his home.

On September 1, 1965 under operation grand slam, Pakistan sent its army in Chhamb in Kashmir. This broke connection of Kashmir with India. The only way to save Chhamb was with the help of air force to which Defense Minister Y.B. Chauhan agreed and General Arjun Singh told that the Air-Force will get ready in half an hour and after an hour, air strikes held. Pakistan tried to battle by indulging with all its efforts.

When water come up to head, Lal Bahadur Shastri gave permission to Army Chief to cross International boundary as Pakistan did from Gujarat and Punjab. India occupied 710 sq. kilometers of area of Pakistan.

Due to international pressure, when battle was over Shastri on October 21, 1965 went to Allahabad. This time people were appreciating him and he was not a weak leader now for them.

Lal Bahadur Shastri said in his speech that like the soldiers are shedding their blood, farmers have to work hard too. He gave slogan of “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” which became famous and ideal for farmers.

On borders, there used to be ceasefire. On January 4, 1966 to January 10, 1966 Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Tashkent to attend a meeting with Pakistan hosted by USSR. There he agreed on the contract that both the countries will come to their original places. International borders should be in the way they used to be on the behalf of India. He signed on it. On January 10 at night, he called home and talked with his wife and told them to send newspaper to Lahore too.

Next morning, only the news came that our second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died in Tashkent due to heart attack!