Bhubaneswar: ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ slogan is synonymous with Lal Bahadur Shastri. From his commendable leadership during and after the Sino-Indian war to his brilliant tactics during a severe food scarcity, Shastri had then set a benchmark for the other leaders.
India celebrates his birth anniversary along with Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.
The demise of Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1964 left a huge gap and the country faced the difficult question as who would replace him as the Prime Minister. K Kamaraj’s intervention in the matter brought us clear results. The two deserving candidates were Morarji Desai- experienced but less favoured, and Lal Bahadur Shastri- honest and loved. Kamaraj convinced Morarji to accept Shastri as the Prime Minister. On June 9, 1964, he took charge as the second Prime Minister of India.
Here are a few interesting things about Shastri:
1. During the food scarcity, he had asked every citizen to observe fast once a week and asked people to grow crops and vegetables on unused lands. He was also seen ploughing the Pradhan Mantri Awaz Lawn.
2. While studying at Harindra Inter College in Banaras, he was slapped by the peon, Devi Lal, for breaking a beaker in science practical lab. When Shastri became the Railway Minister in 1954, he went to the same college to attend an event. While he was on the stage, Devi Lal stepped aside the moment he saw him. Being the humble man that he was, he recognised Devi Lal and hugged him, setting the trend of ‘Jaadu ki Jhappi’ that sets everything right!
3. He opposed the caste system and therefore, never used his original surname. He got the ‘Shastri’ title while he was studying at Kashi Vidyapeeth University in Varanasi in 1926 as a mark of scholarly success.
4. When Shastri was three months old, his mother almost lost him while taking a bath in the Ganga. After an FIR was filed, a cowherd with no children was unwilling to return him to his mother.
5. He would swim across the Ganga twice a day with books tied to his head for school as he could not afford to take a ferry.
6. He was an ardent follower of Gandhi, so when he got married, he asked for a khadi cloth and a spinning wheel in dowry.
7. He was the first to introduce jets of water to disperse the crowd instead of lathi during his tenure as a minister in Uttar Pradesh.
8. The tales of his honesty are never-ending. One of them being reversing his son’s out-of-turn promotion.
9. When he was in jail, his family survived on a pension of Rs 5 a month. When his wife informed him that she could save Rs 10 from that, he asked Servants of People’s Society to deduct his pension and pay Rs 10 to someone needy.
10. On the occasion of his birth centenary in 2004, the Reserve Bank of India had issued a Rs 100 coin with his portrait on it. The non-circulating coin is available on order.
