DNA Special: 56 years of Lal Bahadur Shastri's mysterious death in Tashkent

On January 11, 56 years ago in 1966, the then Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died under mysterious circumstances in Tashkent, Soviet Union. This death was not an ordinary death. It was a death whose mystery remains unsolved even today.

Lal Bahadur Shastri was the Prime Minister of the country for just 19 months. But in these 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. 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.

There are things related to Lal Bahadur Shastri which have never been discussed much.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first Prime Minister, died of a heart attack on May 27, 1964. 13 days after his death, Lal Bahadur Shastri became the second Prime Minister of India. This was on June 9, 1964. This was the period when our country did not fully recover from the Indo-China war of 1962. And Pakistan was also constantly raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir on the international stage.

At that time, the then President of Pakistan, General Ayub Khan, was eager to know which leader had replaced Nehru in India. He really wanted to see if Lal Bahadur Shastri was a strong leader and if the Jammu and Kashmir issue could be aggravated by engaging him at the diplomatic level. Four months after becoming prime minister, in October 1964, when Lal Bahadur Shastri's plane landed at Karachi airport on his way back from an Egypt tour, General Ayub Khan met him for the first time. Pakistan's then Foreign Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was also present.

General Ayub Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto were in suit and boots but Lal Bahadur Shastri was wearing a white dhoti kurta, which shows his simplicity. But it was Shastri's this simplicity that General Ayub Khan misunderstood. General Ayub Khan saw him in a dhoti kurta and said, "So this is the person who has replaced Nehru.” General Ayub Khan felt that a small leader who lives in a plain dhoti kurta had only become the Prime Minister of India through coincidence and could be cornered on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

Lal Bahadur Shastri's height was 5 feet 2 inches. While General Ayub Khan's height was 6 feet two inches. That is, he was much taller than Shastri and his dress was similar to that of the top leaders of Britain and America. On the basis of stature and simplicity, he made the mistake of treating Shastri as weak, and about 10 months after the meeting, Pakistan launched a military operation against India, aimed at sending thousands of infiltrators with weapons to India to revolt and separate Kashmir from India. This was the beginning of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. And on January 10, 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. It said that by February 25, 1966, the armies of the two countries would return to their earlier status. The areas which are occupied by the Indian Army will be returned to Pakistan, and those which were controlled by Pakistan will be returned to India.

At that time, the Indian Army had taken control of the "Hazipir Pass" located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This area was important because this is where Pakistan used to infiltrate its army and tribals into India. In addition, the Indian Army captured a large area of Pakistan's Punjab province and it is said that Indian Army personnel were seen in Lahore. This was bothering Pakistan more because the Indian Army's action had led to five lakh people fleeing to other areas, putting pressure on their government. While the few areas occupied by Pakistan in Jammu and Rajasthan did not have much residence. So, India's position in this war was strong. But the agreement between India and Pakistan in Tashkent benefited Pakistan to some extent.

Some more things were agreed upon in this agreement. The two countries will respect the pre-determined borders, follow the ceasefire and resolve the standoff through dialogue. It also says that Shastri and General Ayub Khan also discussed the issue of Jammu and Kashmir during the agreement.

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 a light meal with spinach greens and favourite potato vegetables. And at 11 pm, Shastri called Delhi and spoke to his wife Lalita. During this time, his wife could not hear his voice clearly and so handed over the phone to his daughter Kusum.

He asked his daughter Kusum what was going on in India at the moment, to which his she replied that everybody in India wants to know what has happened during the agreement.

Shastri then asked the family to send the Indian newspaper to Kabul. Where they had to arrive the next day. It seems that Lal Bahadur Shastri was a little anxious to know the possible reactions to the Tashkent Agreement.

During that time, he started walking around in his hotel room and is said to have died of a heart attack. Very few 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 the time. He says in his book that he has never been able to get an answer as to why his post mortem was not conducted in Tashkent or Delhi.

Today, many people may not know how Lal Bahadur Shastri suddenly became prime minister after Nehru's death, because neither much has been written about his role in the freedom movement nor was he in the news after independence.

After Nehru's death on May 27, 1964. Gulzari Lal Nanda was made the executive Prime Minister of the country. And the task of electing a new Prime Minister was with the then Congress President K Kamaraj, who had differences with Indira Gandhi. Nehru, however, made Indira Gandhi the President of the Congress in 1959 despite opposition and as such she was to become the next Prime Minister of the country after Nehru. But then senior leaders in the Congress party were against it and that is why Indira Gandhi had to step down as Congress president in 1960.

In 1964, K Kamaraj met 12 Congress Chief Ministers and more than 200 MPs in four days to elect a new Prime Minister. Most of these leaders wanted Morarji Desai to be the Prime Minister. K Kamaraj also agreed to it to a great extent, but later it was decided that if Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister, the government and the organisation would be weakened. Because for Morarji Desai, it was said that he did not value the views of his own colleagues. So Morarji Desai's name was removed from the list.

After that, two more names were proposed. The first name was Lal Bahadur Shastri and the second was Indira Gandhi.

There was a separate faction of leaders in the Congress supporting Indira Gandhi, who did not listen to K Kamaraj. So, K Kamaraj decided not to make Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister. And in this way, Lal Bahadur Shastri's name was the only one remaining. He became the railways minister in the country's first Nehru Government between 1952 and 1956, the home minister of the country between 1961 and 1963 and then the second Prime Minister of the country in 1964. However, after he became prime minister, Indira Gandhi tried to put pressure on him.

Indira Gandhi could not become prime minister so some leaders asked for her to be given a seat in Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet. And after much deliberation, Indira Gandhi was made the Information and Broadcasting Minister of the country. However, it was considered an insult to Indira Gandhi. Because at that time, the media in the country did not develop much and the medium of communication was also limited. So, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the Government was not counted as a large Ministry.