LAL BAHADUR

SHASTRI
Death Or Assassination
Lal Bahadur Shastri: India’s 2nd Prime
Minister
◦ Lal Bahadur Shastri, born on 2nd October 1904 was India’s 2nd Prime Minister. He was a follower of Gandhiji and
strongly believed in the policy of Non – Violence. But, after he saw the terrible defeat of India in the 1962 Sino-
Indian War he felt that no country can stay without involving in a war.
◦ He was appointed as a Prime Minister in the year 1965. After being appointed as a Prime Minister he brought
about some important changes in the lives of the common people by implementing two different policies namely
the Green Revolution and the White Revolution.
◦ During his time the Indo-Pak War of 1965 was fought in which India won and Indian army captured the Pakistani
territory up to Lahore, making the army capture about 30% of their territory.
◦ To end this war UN intervened. At that time both USA and USSR wanted to prove themselves powerful.
Therefore, the then Prime Minister of the Soviet Union Kosygin called Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ayyub Khan to
Tashkent for signing up a peace accord among them.
◦ Just after signing the Accord, Lal Bahadur Shastri died a mysterious death on 11th January 1966. No post mortem,
no inquiry done in this matter. Along with him all Eye Witnesses died mysteriously after coming back to India.
Immediate Situation After Lal Bahadur
Shastri’s Death
◦ After his death on 11th January 1966, his body was brought to India and the news spread in awry
everywhere. Everyone said that Shastri died of a heart attack, a natural death. But did he?
◦ His body turned bluish-black within a day as if Ink was injected inside his body from inside. Some
suspected that he was poisoned. To hide this from their family members and his wife, Sandal paste was
applied all over his body.
◦ Their was two blood spots around his neck and stomach as if someone has punctured and sucked the
blood out from his body. The cap which he used to wear always was soaked in blood which is preserved
till date with his family members.
Theories presented regarding Shastri Ji’s death by Anuj
Dhar in his book :-“Your Prime Minister is Dead”

◦ Lal Bahadur Shastri died of a natural death. The government declared that he had a heart attack.
◦ KGB() or Russian Intelligence assassinated him by giving him poison.
◦ CIA() assassinated him by giving him poison.
KGB or Russian Intelligence Theory
◦ The role of KGB behind Shastri’s death too has been conjectured by many. One person who has been talked about
by a few, including Anuj Dhar in his book Your Prime Minister is Dead and Jha, is then Indian Ambassador to the
Soviet Union, TN Kaul.
◦ Jha believes that Kaul was very close to the Soviets, his role behind the agreement and his silence even after
Shastri’s death, is bound to raise some uncomfortable questions.
◦ From the Soviet perspective, its cold war rival US was expanding its geopolitical influence in Asia. Pakistan had
become an American ally and some reports suggested that they had allowed a secret base at Peshawar to be used
by the USAF’s U2 spy planes that were deployed for surveillance of Soviet nuclear facilities, space research, and
other secret works mostly done in Central Asia.
◦ The Soviet Union was desperate to please Pakistan by siding with it, forcing India to accede to its requests so that
General Ayyub could well return the favor to them at a later date.
◦ No one is sure what transpired at the secret discussions between the top two leaders with Soviet PM Kosygin
mediating. But Jha and others did witness the amount of persuasion, insistence, and implicit pressure that he was
exerting on Indian foreign minister Sawaran Singh and probably Shastri.
CIA Theory
◦ USA and its intelligence has always been worried about the development of nuclear power by other
countries and wanted that only they should have the access to nuclear power.
◦ The rising interest of India in nuclear power right after its independence especially by scientists like
Homi Bhabha and Prime Ministers like Lal Bahadur Shastri was concerning them.
◦ This tension increased more after Homi Bhabha met a nuclear physicist in Russia who was incharge of
the Russian Nuclear Programme.
◦ Lal Bahadur Shastri immensely wanted that India should become a nuclear power and planned to start
executing the plan after the signing of the treaty.
◦ But before this plan could be executed Lal Bahadur Shastri died on 11 th January 1966 followed by Homi
Jehangir Bhabha who died on 24th January 1966 mysteriously in a foreign country.
Mysterious reports
◦ When Shastri Ji started to feel uncomfortable in his room he ran to the neighbouring room where his mates were staying despite
having three telephones among which one directly calls the security when picked.
◦ When Shastri died in Tashkent, KGB(Russian Intelligence) offered the government of India that the post mortem can be done by them
but the Indian officials and politicians denied it.
◦ All eye witnesses died after coming back to India. Like: Dr . Chug, the personal doctor of Prime Minister, died of a car accident along
with his whole family mysteriously. The personal butler of prime minister was beaten with his legs crushed and head injured by some
people causing his memory loss, just before the butler was beaten he was saying his mother, ”Aaj sara bojh utar denge, Amma” after
which he headed to Motilal Nehru’s Residence.
◦ The cook who cooked the last meal of Lal Bahadur Shastri was arrested by KGB who later found to be missing. But this fact was
hidden by the govt. of India from the normal public.
◦ Recently, CIA released some papers about the Tashkent treaty between India and Pakistan saying that Lal Bahadur Shastri was forced
to sign a treaty where India lost some of its territories like the POK. To prevent him to take these territories back he was assassinated.
Questions Unanswered
◦ When Indira Gandhi was asked about Shastri Ji’s death she said that there are reports that Lal Bahadur Shastri died of a
heart attack but some facts say that he was assassinated. So, why did she not start the investigation despite of media
pressure?
◦ In 2nd August 2006, Anuj Dhar, the writer of the book ‘Your Prime Minister is dead’ filed an RTI for knowing the truth
about Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death. But the govt. replied to this saying, ” To maintain good International Relations the
information about his death are to be kept confidential”
◦ After some days of his death Blitz released a fake letter of Lal Bahadur Shastri writing to Ayyub Khan about peace
between the two countries. Later on it was found the letter was fake and anyone who wrote this letter knew the prime
minister will be dead to prove this letter is fake. In 20XX, The proposal to start investigating that who wrote the letter
using the serial no. and date was raised but before the solution to this could be provided the speaker stopped everyone
before time saying, ” The Question hour is Over ”.
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