Lal Bahadur Shastri

Date of Birth : Oct 2, 1904 Date of Death : Jan 11, 1966 Place of Birth : Uttar Pradesh

Lal Bahadur Shastri was the second Prime Minister of independent India and a significant figure in the struggle for independence. Shashtriji was born in Mughalsarai, in Uttar Pradesh. To take part in the non-cooperation movement of Mahatma Gandhi in 1921, he began studying at the nationalist, Kashi Vidyapeeth in Kashi, and upon completion, he was given the title Shastri, or Scholar, Doctor at Kashi Vidyapeeth in 1926. He spent almost nine years in jail in total, mostly after the start of the Satyagraha movement in 1940, he was imprisoned until 1946. Following India’s independence, he was Home Minister under Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant of Uttar Pradesh. In 1951, he was appointed General Secretary of the Lok Sabha before re-gaining a ministerial post as Railways Minister. He resigned as Minister following a rail disaster near Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu. He returned to the Cabinet following the General Elections, first as Minister for Transport, in 1961, he became Home Minister. After Jawaharlal Nehru’s death in May 27, 1964, he became the prime minister. Shastri worked by his natural characteristics to obtain compromises between opposing viewpoints, but in his short tenure was ineffectual in dealing with the economic crisis and food shortage in the nation.

However, he commanded a great deal of respect in the Indian populace, and he used it to advantage in pushing the Green Revolution in India; which directly led to India becoming a food-surplus nation, although he did not live to see it. His administration began on a rocky turf. In 1965 Pakistan attacked India on the Kashmiri front and Lal Bahadur Shastri responded in kind by punching toward Lahore. In 1966 a cease-fire was issued as a result of international pressure. Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Tashkent to hold talks with Ayub Khan and an agreement was soon signed. Lal Bahadur passed away in Tashkent before returning home. All his lifetime, he was known for his honesty and humility. He was the first person to be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna and a memorial “Vijay Ghat” was built for him in Delhi. The slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ is attributed to Shastri. ‘If one person gives up one meal in a day, some other person gets his only meal of the day.’: made during the food crisis to encourage people to evenly distribute food.