What kind of a person was lal Bahadur Shastri, India’s second Prime Minister after Pandit Jawaharlal NehruIJ

He was a person who fiercely guarded his self esteem and that of the nation even if that meant going hungry for half-a-day, his son and former Union Minister Anil Kumar Shastri said here.

During the 1965 war with Pakistan, the then US President lyndon B Johnson sent a tough missive demanding that India stop the war and warning that if India did not relent then the US would stop providing wheat to the country under the Pl-480 agreement. India used to import wheat at that time to meet the domestic requirement.

“The same day, Shastriji told my mother not to cook food for the family in the evening. When she inquired as to what was the cause, he explained that he wanted to know whether his family members could withstand hunger for half-a-day. I must know how it feels before asking the countrymen to forgo one meal everyday to meet the situation,” Anil Shastri recalled.

The next day Shastriji addressed the nation on the All India Radio exhorting the people to skip one meal a day. “We may go hungry, but not bow before the US,” he said.

Anil Shastri recounted several anecdotes about his father while addressing students and faculty members of the SOA University during its 7th Foundation Day celebration of the University on Wednesday night.

Shastriji’s integrity had come to the fore during the freedom struggle when he was in jail. His family was living on a pension of Rs 50 provided by the Servants of  People Society. Shastriji wrote a letter to his wife from jail inquiring whether she was receiving the pension and whether it was enough to meet the needs of the family.

“My mother wrote back that she was getting the pension every month and she could meet the household expenses which came to Rs 40 and she was able to save Rs 10. Shastriji promptly wrote to the Servants of People Society requesting the organisation to send his family only Rs 40 as it was enough to meet the household expenses while suggesting that the Rs 10 go to some needy family.”

Even after becoming the Prime Minister, Shastriji did not own a car though the family members had been pestering him for one. He wanted his secretary to find out how much a Fiat car cost. The price was found to be Rs 12,000, but he had only Rs 7,000 in the bank. He applied to a bank for a loan, which was sanctioned in one and a half hours.

Shastriji promptly summoned the bank officer who had sanctioned the loan to his office to inquire if the bank was as prompt in sanctioning loans to other people as well. He advised the officer to be prompt in meeting the requirement of the bank’s customers.

“When my father became Prime Minister, I was studying in school and suggested that he have a carpet in his bedroom. But he turned it down saying he was the Prime Minister of a country where millions of people had no roof over their heads. So, he could not afford such a luxury and that he should be happy with whatever he had,” Anil Shastri further recalled.

“During my stay in Bhubaneswar, a group of five young men met me in the hotel and wanted to know whether I was Anil Shastri. When I confirmed that it indeed was me, they wanted to be photographed with me.”

“I am not as famous as my father, but youngsters today recognise and honour the legacy of lal Bahadur Shastri. They want to be photographed with the legacy,” he said, adding Shastriji was Prime Minister for barely one and a half years. “But he created an identify for himself during the short time and his slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan’ is still relevant today,” he said.