Quick Basic Facts about Lal Bahadur Shastri
- Date of Birth – 2 Oct 1904
- Place of Birth – Mughalsarai, Varanasi, UP
- Date of Death – 11 Jan 1966 at Tashkent (the then part of USSR) at age of 61 years
- Date of accession to PM – 9 June 1964
- Election Constituency – Allahabad
- Parents – Sharda Prasad Varma, Ramdulari Devi
- Name of Wife – Lalita Devi
Personal Life Facts about Lal Bahadur Shastri
- Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on 2nd Oct 1904 at Mughalsarai, Varanasi with actual name Lal Bahadur Varma.
- Shastri (The Scholar) was a title honoured to him after he passed out from Kashi Vidya Peeth, Varanasi in 1925. This title became popular and remained with his name and he was better known as Lal Bahadur Shastri.
- He belonged to a very humble background and during the period of Quit India Movement he was not able to save the life of her ill daughter as he could not afford the costly medicines.
Political Life Facts about Lal Bahadur Shastri
- Lal Bahadur Shastri was a member of Lok Sevak Mandal (Servants of People of Society), founded by Lala Lajpat Rai and later he became the president of Society.
- After participating in Salt Movement (Namak Andolan) in 1930, Lal Bahadur Shastri was arrested and jailed for 2 and half years.
- After independence he was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary in Uttar Pradesh and also become Minister of Police and Transport under Chief Misnistership of GB Pant.
- Lal Bahadur Shastri served as Minister of Railways and Transport under the Prime Ministership of JL Nehru in his second incumbency (1952 -1956). Taking moral responsibility after a train accident he resigned but again appointed as Minister of Transport and Communication in the third incumbency of J L Nehru ( 1957 – 1962).
- In 1962 he became Home Minister during which he was instrumental in handling the incident of Missing Relic of Hazratbal Mosque.
- After the death of J L Nehru in 1964, the then Congress President K Kamraj first offered Indira Gandhi for the Post of PM, but upon her refusal Lal Bahadur Shastri who was a Nehruvian in his thoughts and ideologies was made the PM as Kamraj didn’t want Morarji Desai to reach the throne.
- Lal Bahadur Shastri was instrumental in promoting White revolution for increasing the production and supply of milk at Amul, Anand, Gujrat and also founded NDDB (NAtional Dairy Development Board)
- Lal Bahadur Shastri urged the general masses to have one day fast to save the food grains. His appeal was so effective that even the restaurants and hotels started going one day off.
- Lal Bahadur Shastri made an agreement called Sirima Shastri Pact with the then Sri Lankan PM Srimavo Bhandarniake regarding the status of Indian Tamils in the then Ceylon.
- Lal Bahadur Shastri gave a popular slogan ” Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” during the 1965 war with Pakistan, which is remembered even today. After UN intervention the war was stopped but by then Pakistan was beaten badly.
Reason of Death of Lal Bahadur Shastri
- After the ceasefire of 1965 war, Lal Bahadur Shastri and the then Pakistani PM Ayub Khan signed an agreement in Tashkent , Russia(Presently in Uzbekistan) in year 1966 which is called Tashkent Declaration. After next day he was found dead in mysterious conditions.
- As per officical statement, the reson of death of Shastri was Heart Attack but there are several factors which shows un-natural causes and hence indicate some conspiracy which never became clear. The reasons why the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri is considered mysterious because of following points –
- He was in sound health condition and he has no earlier reported sign of heart problem. He was in perfect condition as per his personal doctor Dr R N Chugh.
- His body turned bluish indicating some sort of poisoning.
- No Post Mortem/autopsy was conducted by the Govt of India/Russia.
- As per his son Sunil Shastri there were cut marks on the lower abdomen of Lal Bahadur Shastri
- The Russian chef who was personally catering Lal Bahadur Shastri was arrested on suspicion of poisoning but was later released for lack of evidence.
- As per the disclosure of a CIA agent Robert Crowely, CIA was responsible for the assassination of not only Lal Bahadur Shastri but also famous nuclear scientist Homi Jahangir Bhabha.