Nafrat chodo, Bharat jodo

(N Nagarajan)
January 11 is a very important day in Indian history. It was on this day India’s second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri passed away in Tashkent in Russia on 11 January 1966 due to cardiac arrest which is being falsely spread as mysterious death at the hands of the KGB which only resulted in someone in Bollywood making a film “Tashkent File” to make money. For political parties, the great Gandhian has become an object for slug-fast but the fact remains that he was a true follower of Gandhian principles and continued to carry forward the Nehruvian principle. It was the late K Kamaraj who was instrumental in making him Prime Minister of India then and soon after assuming the office in the national broadcast he said
“There comes a time in the life of every nation when it stands at the crossroads of history and must choose which way to go. But for us, there need be no difficulty or hesitation, no looking to right or left. Our way is straight and clear—the building up of a socialist democracy at home with freedom and prosperity for all, and the maintenance of world peace and friendship with all nations”. If I am not wrong we continue to stand on these principles even though he was dead against right-wingers until his death as antipathy of late PM Morarji Desai against him and of course, Nehruji is well documented and known.When Shastriji assumed office our hostile neighbor attempted to intrude on our territory and without making much hype and noise he allowed Indian armed forces to take the right action to tame Pakistan so much so our forces almost walked inside Pakistan and just few kilometers before Lahore through Punjab sector when they foolishly attempted to enter India through western sector which was well shown the in the series “Mukahbir: The Story of a Spy”The early life of Lal Bahadur Shastri was much more difficult than what our present Prime Minister faced during his growing up years. He never publicized his childhood years struggle the way we get to read nowadays in various sources. The fact of the matter like true Gandhian he practiced what he preached during the war when we were facing shortages of food article he appealed to people to observe fast for one day a week and which he strictly followed until the situation turned normal.He was always against mixing religion with politics and it was amply proved in a public meeting held at Ram Lila Grounds in Delhi a few days after the ceasefire in 1965 when he complained about a BBC report which claimed that Shastri’s identity as a Hindu meant that he was ready for a war with Pakistan, he went to say “While I am a Hindu, Mir Mushtaq who is presiding this meeting is a Muslim, Mr. Frank Anthony who addressed you is Christian. There are also Sikhs and Parsis and people of other religions here. We have temples and mosques, gurdwaras, and churches. But we do not bring all this into politics. This is different between India and Pakistan. Whereas Pakistan has proclaimed herself to be an Islamic State and uses religion as a political factor we Indians have Indian have the freedom to follow whatever religion we may choose and worship in any way we please. So far as politics is concerned, each of us is as much an Indian as the other”. This message still holds good for the politicians now who are openly using it to seek votes. If Shastriji has been alive today, he would have strongly spoken against the use of religion in politics and would have given the call “NAFRAT CHODO BHARAT JODO” as his slogan “Jai JawanJai Kisan” has been hijacked by political parties.It is needless to recall how he maintained probity in public life and we all know how resigned as Railway Minister after a major accident in Tamil Nadu (Madras then). If the present-day leaders can’t follow his ideals they also have no right to share their tribute either on his birth or death anniversary. While concluding my thoughts about late PM Shastriji, I would like to recall an incident. I asked a school student, who is Lal Bahadur Shastri, but the student could not answer when asked who is Ravi Shastri I quickly got the right answer. Time for us to tell the story about India’s second PM as slowly children would forget India’s first PM.