शत शत नमन - shat-shat naman Shastri jee

Today we remember the day as Bapujee's birthday but often overlook his avatar- Lal Bahadur Shastri. Two tiny tidy figures who challlenged the global mights.

Here is a peek into various facets of Shastrijee's life and intereseting accounts from his fantabulous tenure. Shat Shat Naman !!

N.B.- These has been collected from various blogs and personal accounts.

Public Policy & Governance:

• He said: "I'll tell them that during my tenure there will not be any increase in food price and as PM of India I would ask members of the Planning Commission to have one more column in their charts to show me how many jobs will be created after spending thousands of crores of rupees."He was a man concerned about the common man of India. Can these values return to this country?

• When under the PL 480 programme, America was going to send inferior quality of wheat to India, he opposed it. He asked the nation to go hungry once a day than accept poor quality food from US.

• The man who ushered in the Green Revolution (grain) – and the White Revolution (milk).

1965 Indo-Pak War & Foreign relations:


• "Hathiyaron ka jawab hathiyaron se denge. (Force will be met with force.) Hamara desh rahega to hamara tiranga rahega. (Our flag will survive only if our country does)".

• After Shastri became PM he had to face the war with Pakistan. When the Chamb border was attacked Shastri was asked to take a tough decision whether to cross the international border. The army chief said it would be difficult to hold on for long at Chamb. Shastri gave the order saying -- before they can capture Chamb you should capture Lahore.After the war was over, I asked Indira Gandhi if Nehru would have allowed the crossing of the international border. Mrs Gandhi said, 'Whatever the generals would have advised him he would have followed."


• China's allegation is untrue. If China attacks India it is our firm resolve to fight for our freedom. The might of China will not deter us from defending our territorial integrity."

• It does not matter if we are destroyed. We will fight to the last to maintain the high honor of the Indian nation and its flag."


• His toughness was evident at Tashkent. He insisted on "never again will weapons be used to sort out problems between India [ Images ] and Pakistan."Ayub was maintaining a vague stance by quoting UN resolutions. "Then you will have to find another PM," said Shastri during the arguments. In the final agreement General Ayub Khan had not mentioned those words but Shastri continued to press for it.Ayub finally wrote it at the very last moment. General Ayub's handwritten assurance is still preserved in the Indian archives. Shastri was a slight person but with a strong mind.

Austerity & Humour:

• Shastri never made money. In 1963, on the day when he was dropped under the Kamaraj plan I went to meet him. He was sitting in his home without a light."Why are you sitting in the dark?" I asked. He said, "From today all expenses will be borne by me." He told me as a MP and minister he didn't earn enough to save for his rainy day.On that evening, I told him to turn a columnist to earn some money. So he wrote a column on Lala Lajpat Rai. That was the first syndicated column in India.


• During Shastri's tenure his home in Janpath was upgraded quite a bit to suit the status of a PM.After his death, while searching for a suitable home Mrs Gandhi went to see Shastri's home. She entered the home, had a round inside and said, "middle class!"

• The most cherished memory I have is the verses of Guru Nanak, which were displayed on his table. As Nehru kept Robert Frost's lines -- 'Miles to go before I sleep', on his desk, my father kept Nanak's quotes in Gurmukhi.When translated into English they mean -- 'O Nanak! Be tiny like the grass, for other plants will whither away, but grass will remain ever green.'


• Lal Bahadur was a lover of cricket. Once he was watching a match at Kanpur. Trouble broke out among the spectators. The Police and young men came to blows. Since Shastriji was on the spot thesituation did not go out of control. The young men demanded that the red turbans' (thepolice) should not be found on the cricket ground and Lal Bahadur agreed. But the police were there the next day. The young men became angry with Shastriji and protested. Lal Bahadur laughed and said, "I fulfilled my promise to you faithfully. You did not want red turbans to be here. You see the police are now wearing khaki turbans." The spectators laughed and dropped the matter.

Courtesy:
Kuldeep Nayyar
Anil Shastri
http://www.freeindia.org/
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/oct/06spec1.htm