Lal Bahadur Shastri: the unsung hero
Well, most of us remember 2nd October as Gandhi’s birthday but we have a lot to learn from his disciple who also shares his birthday with Gandhi. His life has been a lesson of morality for us than just his Wikipedia. His father passed away when he was just a year and a half old and his mother managed to get him educated. In his 10th standard and three months from sitting the final examinations, he attended a public meeting hosted by Gandhi. Inspired by Gandhi’s call for students to withdraw from government school and join the non-cooperation movement, He withdrew from High School the next day and joined the local branch of the Congress Party as a volunteer, actively participating in picketing and anti-government demonstrations. His mother was worried about his future and lost all hopes when he withdrew from school who didn’t know that he would later become a Parliamentary Secretary in Uttar Pradesh, Minister of Police and Transport, Minister of Railways, and later the 2nd Prime Minister of India. Yes, I was talking about Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Whenever I hear about railway accidents, I remember him for his standards of morality when he had resigned as Minister of Railways, taking the blame on him for the accidents. The then Prime Minister, Pt. Nehru, speaking in Parliament on the incident, extolled Lal Bahadur Shastri’s integrity and high ideals. He said he was accepting the resignation because it would set an example in constitutional propriety and not because Lal Bahadur Shastri was in any way responsible for what had happened.
He is one of the great leaders of our nation who stayed one night incognito in a village to witness Amul’s success. He introduced himself as a traveler who had lost his way and was invited by a family to stay with them that night. He then grabbed the opportunity to know more about them and the village. By the next morning, he was not only convinced about the Anand pattern of cooperatives but put his full might to set up the National Dairy Development Board in Anand to help replicate the movement across the country. From being 50th in the world in terms of milk production, India became the largest producer of milk in just a couple of decades.
Under his leadership during the Indo — Pak war, his clarion call of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ still reverberates in the hearts and minds of every proud Indian. After the Pokhran tests in 1998, Atal Bihari Vajpayee added ‘Jai Vigyan’ to the slogan to underline the importance of knowledge in India’s progress.
As the Transport Minister, he was the first to appoint women conductors. As the minister in charge of the Police Department, he ordered that police use water jets, whose instructions were given by him, instead of lathis to disperse unruly crowds.
In this way, he did justice for every position in his professional career he has taken up. We need to remember and respect him for being a man of great integrity and competence. His honesty and tolerance should be followed by every Indian.
Credits: Sahithi Aggi
