Mysterious Death of Lal Bahadur Shastri
Mysterious Death of Lal Bahadur Shastri
On January 11, 57 years ago in 1966 , the then Prime
Minister of India , Lal Bahadur Shastri , died under mysterious circumstances
in Tashkent , Soviet Union ( USSR ) . This death was not an ordinary death . It was a death
whose mystery remains unsolved even today .
Lal Bahadur Shastri was Prime Minister of country for just
19 months . But in this 19 months , he made the world realize India’s power .
With the slogan of ‘ Jai Jawan – Jai Kisan ‘ , he broke Pakistan’s arrogance forever in the 1965 war , and
Pakistan’s dream of capturing Kashmir was shattered .After the 1965 war , India
and Pakistan signed an agreement in Tashkent on January 10, 1966 , Shastri died at around 2 pm on the same day .
For an executive Prime Minister of a country to die under
mysterious circumstances in another country is extraordinary . But at that
time, media wasn’t as strong as it is today. There were neither 24-hour news
channels nor social media. So, the matter and the news were largely suppressed.
And we never got to know the exact cause of Shastri's death. However, we feel
that it is important to turn the pages of history associated with his death
today.
At the Indo – Pak war of 1965 , India was in good position .
So , there was a need for Pakistan to make agreement with India to stop war .
And on 10th January ,1966 , nine agreements were signed between Lal
Bahadur Shastri and General Ayub Khan to
put an end to the same war. That is, the agreement was signed hours before the
death of Lal Bahadur Shastri .
After this agreement , a party was held in Tashkent that day
. After attending the same , Shastri
came to his hotel room at around 10 pm . He was not hungry after eating a
little at the party , so he had light meal with spinach greens and favourite
potato vegetables . And at 11 pm , he called Delhi and spoke to his wife Lalita
and daughter Kusum .
After that he started walking around hotel room and is said
to have died of heart attack . Very less people know that Shastri was a heart
patient and had suffered a heart attack once before in 1959 .
Two questions were never answered in this case . First , why
was Shastri’s post-mortem not conducted in Tashkent after his death , and why
did no one think it necessary to conduct post-mortem of his mortal remains in India . Secondly , it
is said that his body had turned blue after his
death , raising questions about whether he was poisoned .
This was mentioned by Kuldeep Nayyar in his autobiography ‘
Beyond The Lines ‘, who was present in Tashkent as Shastri’s press advisor at
that time . He says in his book that he was never boon able to get an answer as
to why his post-mortem was not conducted in Tashkent or Delhi .
After Shastri's death, his wife Lalita Shastri 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 wife Lalita. Journalist,
conspiracy theorist, and holocaust denier Gregory Douglas claimed to have
conducted a series of interviews with CIA officer Robert Crowley in 1993. In a
book published in 2013, 20 years after Crowley's death, Douglas wrote that
Crowley euphemistically told him the CIA had assassinated Shastri, stating
"And we nailed Shastri as well. Another cow-loving rag head", as well
as Indian nuclear scientist Homi Bhabha thirteen days later in order to thwart
the Indian nuclear programme.
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. 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 Nayyar 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 2009 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 death of Lal Bahadur Shastri is considered to
be one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of Indian politics.
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 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 .
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