Author: N. Nagaraj Rao
Publication: Bharatiya Pragna
Date: October, 2004
Introduction: Jawaharlal Nehru died
in office on May 27, 1964 and left something of a vacuum. The major figures
of the Congress Party were unable to find enough support which allowed
the lesser regarded Shastri to come through as the compromise candidate,
becoming Prime Minister on June 9. The ruling Congress Party elected Lal
Bahadur unanimously as its leader. He did not show any interest in the
discussions before the election of the leader. Power and authority came
in search of him. Fame set a crown on his head. The short man grew into
a colossus. He showed by his work that, though he was tender like a flower,
he could be hard as diamond, too. He filled the Four Corners of the world
with the fame of India. He is, however, a largely forgotten figure, another
victim of the engineering of India's social memory by Indira Gandhi and
her clan.
Lal Bahadur Shastri (born 1904)
succeeded Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister of India in 1964.
'A small body - but mighty glory'-so
runs a kannada proverb. It applies to several great men. Shivaji was not
tall. But like a magnet he attracted people, and organised and built a
great empire. Napoleon was short. But he shook the whole world. Lal Bahadur
Shastri was not taller than those two; but he was not second to them in
greatness. Firmness, love of adventure, patience and skill in administration
cannot be acquired in a day or a year. Only when we study his growth from
childhood can we understand how he acquired all these qualities.
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.
In the first General Elections after
India became a Republic, the Congress Party returned to power with a huge
majority. Lal Bahadur Shastri worked hard for this success. He was the
General Secretary of the Congress at the General Secretary of the Congress
at the time. The selection of candidates and the direction of publicity
and electioneering were under the direct guidance of Shastriji. But he
did not contest the elections. However, Nehru did not wish to leave such
an able and honest man outside the government. He persuaded him to seek
election to the Rajya Sabha. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha. He was
appointed as the Railways and Transport Minister in the Central Cabinet
1952)..
The railways are among the biggest
Central Government undertakings, transport plays a vital role in the progress
of any country. The railways in India had been badly disrupted after the
division of the country. Lal Bahadur strove hard to set right and regulate
the railways. It is not easy to organise movement of passengers and good
from place to place without waste of time and without inconvenience. Lal
Bahadur succeeded in this to a large extent. There were four classes- first,
second, intermediate and third in the railways then. First class compartments
offered extreme luxury and were almost heavenly. But the discomfort of
passengers in the third class compartments was beyond description. They
did not have even minimum comforts. Lal Bahadur's efforts to reduce the
vast disparity between the first and the last classes cannot be forgotten.
The first class that offered royal comfort was abolished. The old second
came to be known as the first class and the intermediate class as the second
class. His idea was to have only two classes of compartments in course
of time - the first and the second. It was he who provided more facilities
to travelers in third class compartments.
Lal Bahadur identified himself with
the Railways so much that he felt he was responsible if anything went wrong
in his department. When he was the Railway Minister in 1956, 144 passengers
died in an accident that took place near Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu.. Just
three months before this, an accident had occurred at Mehboob Nagar in
Andhra Pradesh which 112 people died. Lal Bahadur was in no way responsible
for these accidents. Yet he was very much pained. He felt he could not
escape the moral responsibility for them. He had submitted his resignation
letter to Pandit Nehru when the Mehboob Nagar accident took place. But
Nehru had not accepted it. But when the Ariyalur accident took place Shastriji
said, 'I must do penance for this. Let me go.' So strong was his sense
of responsibility.
Lal Bahadur Shastri's exit from
the Central Cabinet was a blessing for the ruling party. He worked for
the party during the General Elections next year. Then he became the Minister
for Transport and communications and later the Minister for Commerce and
Industry. He became the Home Minister in 1961, after the death of Govind
Vallabh Pant.
The Homeless Home Minister
People used to call him the homeless
Home Minister because he did not have a house of his own. He had rented
a small house in Allahabad. Even when he was a minister, he used to stay
in that house when he went to Allahabad. After a few days the owner of
the house let it out to another family. When Shastriji resigned as minister
he vacated the government quarters and he did not have a place to live
in it.
Nehru died suddenly on May 27, 1964.
and search for an able successor was on.
Though eclipsed by such stalwarts
of the Congress party as Kamaraj (the Kingmaker) and Morarji Desai, Finance
Minister in Nehru's government, Shastri emerged as the consensus candidate
in the midst of party warfare. Finally all the leaders came to the decision
that Lal Bahadur Shastri was the only person to pilot the nation at such
critical times.
He had not been in power long before
he had to attend to the difficult matter of Pakistani aggression, as represented
by India, along the Rann of Kutch; and though a cease-fire under the auspices
of the United Nations put a temporary halt to the fighting, the scene of
conflict soon shifted to the more troubled spot of Kashmir. While Pakistan
claimed that a spontaneous uprising against the Indian occupation of Kashmir
had taken place, India charged Pakistan with fomenting sedition inside
its territory and sending armed raiders into Jammu and Kashmir from Azad
Kashmir. Shastri promised to meet force with force, and by early September
the second Indo-Pakistan war had commenced.
Not a Slave to Position
The greatest danger that India had
to face at the time was China's aggression (1962). The Chinese army crossed
the Himalayan border and moved forward in wave after wave and occupied
Indian territory in the north. But India stood up like one man against
China. The Chinese moved back. But they did not return the areas they had
occupied. China stabbed India in the back and lost the friendship of India.
This was the time when China in
the north and Pakistan both in the east and the west started giving trouble
to India. It was absolutely necessary that the people of India should forget
internal quarrels and that they should unite like brothers and sisters.
Lal Bahadur Shastri strove hard to make the people feel that they were
all one.
Shield for India's Honor
Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime
Minister of India at a crucial time in India's history. The first problem
that he had to face after he became the Prime Minister was one caused by
Pakistan. Pakistan took shape by eroding India's land, and was instigating
Indian Muslims. After the Chinese aggression, when India's confidence in
her strength had been shaken, Pakistan was creating trouble along the borders.
But Shastriji would not yield to
the wickedness of Pakistan. He first tried to earn the goodwill and support
of other nations for India. He visited Russia, Egypt, Canada and Britain
and explained to the leaders of those nations India's stand. He attended
a meeting of the non-aligned nations (nations which were neutral) and explained
India's position. He even tried to reason with President Ayub Khan of Pakistan.
The wicked do not like advice. They can understand only one language, the
language of war.
The Rann of Kutch
It had become Pakistan's habit to
provoke India somehow and jump to arms.
Pakistan had been waiting to swallow
Kashmir somehow. She pushed her forces across the eastern border into the
Rann of kuch in Gujarat State in April-May of 1965. Lal Bahadur was not
unnerved by this unexpected attack. He faced the problem with great tact
at that critical moment. The Indian Army forced the attackers to retreat.
Then both countries agreed to stop fighting
'Force will be met with force'
But friendly words cannot tame a
serpent. There is but one way to do it - to remove the serpent IS fangs.
Even before the ink with which they
had signed the Kutch agreement dried up, Pakistan raised its hood to strike
again. Pakistani soldiers entered Kashmir in disguise. In September 1965
there was a large-scale invasion of the territory by Pakistani soldiers
in the Chhamb area. War broke out all along the Cease-fire Line on the
Kashmir border.
The enemies who had managed to enter
Kashmir were cunning and mischievous. Pakistan also tried to incite Indian
Muslims. The Pakistan army was engaged in forcibly occupying areas, which
belonged to India. There was the danger of the fighting spreading to the
eastern border also. In addition to this, there was the threat posed by
the Chinese on the northern borders of India. Lal Bahadur Shastri faced
all these problems with a will of iron. It was at this time that the country
understood the greatness of Lal Bahadur Shastri. He decided that was the
time to teach Pakistan a lesson. He gave full freedom to the Commander
of the Army. 'Go forward and strike' was Shastriji's command to the generals.
Addressing the nation on 13th August
1965 Shastriji referred to Pakistan's threats and said, "Force will be
met with force." Two days later, during the celebration of Independence
day, he declared from the ramparts of the Red Fort: "It does not matter
if we are destroyed. We will fight to the last to maintain the high honor
of the Indian nation and its flag.
But Shastriji would not yield to
the wickedness of Pakistan. He first tried to earn the goodwill and support
of other nations for India. He visited Russia, Egypt, Canada and Britain
and explained to the leaders of those nations India's stand. He attended
a meeting of the non-aligned nations (nations which were neutral) and explained
India's position. He even tried to reason with President Ayub Khan of Pakistan.
The wicked do not like advice. They can understand only one language, the
language of war..
Lal Bahadur appealed to the people
of the nation to fight the enemy despite difference and gave the immortal
slogan Jai jawan and Jai kisan - (Hail the Soldier and Hail the Farmer)
which galvanized the nation into a patriotic fervor unprecedented Shastriji
is Immortal
Though the Indian army reached the
outskirts of Lahore, Shastri agreed to withdraw Indian forces.
But his triumph was short-lived:
invited in January 1966 by the Russian Premier, Aleksei Kosygin, to Tashkent
for a summit with General Muhammad Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan and
commander of the nation's armed forces 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. and he died the next day, Shastri's
body was brought back to India, and a memorial, not far from the national
memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, was built to honor him. It says, in fitting
testimony to Shastri, "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" ("Honor the Soldier, Honor
the Farmer
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. Lal Bahadur was a star of great brightness in the history of India,
After his death the President of India conferred on him, on behalf of the
nation, the award of 'Bharat Ratna'; it was a most Fitting.
