Lal Bahadur Shastri Biography Birthday Death Quotes History Photos/Images/Pictures Prime Minister

Lal Bahadur Shastri Biography.Lal Bahadur Shastri Birthday.Lal Bahadur Shastri Death.Lal Bahadur Shastri Quotes.Lal Bahadur Shastri History.Lal Bahadur Shastri Photos.Lal Bahadur Shastri ImagesLal Bahadur Shastri.Pictures.Lal Bahadur Shastri 2nd Prime Minister of India.

Lal Bahadur Shastri Biography:

Lal Bahadur Shastri (pronounced 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was the second 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 Congress leader 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 of Nehruvian socialism after Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi turned down Congress President K. Kamaraj's offer of premiership.

Lal Bahadur Shastri 

Shastri as Prime Minister continued Nehru's policies of non-alignment and socialism. He became a national hero following the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. The war was formally ended in the Tashkent Agreement of 10 January 1966; he died the following day, still in Tashkent, of a heart attack.

Early Life:

Shastri was born in Mughal Sarai in the Chandauli district of the United Provinces, British India in British ruled India. His father, Shri Sharada Srivastava Prasad, was a school teacher, who later became a clerk in the Revenue Office at Allahabad. Shastri's father died when he was only a year old. His mother, Ramdulari Devi, took him and his two sisters to her father's house and settled down there.

Shastri was educated at East Central Railway Enter college in Mughalsarai and Varanasi. He graduated with a first-class degree from the Kashi Vidyapeeth in 1926. He was given the title Shastri ("Scholar"). The title was a bachelor's degree awarded by the Vidya Peeth, but it stuck as part of his name. Shastri was influenced by major Indian nationalist leaders including Tilak and Gandhi. Later he was greatly influenced by the socialism of Jawaharlal Nehru, whose left-wing faction in the Congress party he would eventually join.

In 16 May 1928, Shastri married Lalita Devi of Mirzapur. He had five children, including Hari Krishna Shashtri, Anil Shastri and Sunil Shashtri, who were all Congress politicians.  His son Anil Shastri is still a senior leader of the Congress party.

Prime Minister of India (1964-66):

Jawaharlal Nehru died in office on 27 May 1964 and left a void. 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 Nehruvian socialist 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.

"There comes a time in the life of every nation when it stands at the cross-roads of history and must choose which way to go. But for us there need be no difficulty or hesitation, no looking to right or left. Our way is straight and clear—the building up of a socialist democracy at home with freedom and prosperity for all, and the maintenance of world peace and friendship with all nations."

Lal Bahadur Shastri Biography 

Death:

Prime Minister Shastri died in Tashkent due to a heart attack the day after signing the Tashkent Declaration. 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 the Congress Parliamentary Party elected Indira Gandhi over Morarji Desai to officially succeed Shastri.

Shastri's sudden death has led to persistent conspiracy theories that he was poisoned. The first inquiry into his death was 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 possible existence of a conspiracy was covered in India by the Outlook magazine. In 2009, when Anuj Dhar, the author of the book, CIA's Eye on South Asia, asked the Prime Minister's Office under an RTI plea (Right to Information Act), to declassify a document supposedly related to Shastri's death, the PMO 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.

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 through the mouth of his wife Lalita Shastri.

Memorials:

Shastri was known for his honesty and humility throughout his life. He was the first person to be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, and a memorial "Vijay Ghat" was built for him in Delhi. Several educational institutes, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussorie, Uttarakhand) is after his name these were some examples. The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute was named after Shastri due to his role in promoting scholarly activity between India and Canada. Today Lal Bhadur Shastri Memorialrun by Lal Bahadur Shastri National Memorial Trust, is situated next to 10 Janpath his residence as Prime Minister, at 1, Motilal Nehru Place, New Delhi. In 2011, on Shastri’s 45th death anniversary, Uttar Pradesh Government announced to renovate Shastri’s ancestral house at Ramnagar in Varanasi and declared plans to convert it into a biographical museum.

The International Airport at the City of Varanasi is named after him.

A Monument and a street is named after him in the city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

A stadium is named after him in the city of Hyderabad, Andhrapradesh

In 2005, the Government of India created a chair in his honour in the field of democracy and governance at Delhi University.

Quotes by Lal Bahadur Shastri:

If Pakistan has any ideas of annexing any part of our territories by force, she should think afresh. I want to state categorically that force will be met with force and aggression against us will never be allowed to succeed. 

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