Lal Bahadur Shastri, the 2nd Prime Minister of India- facts, biography, and slogans
Lal Bahadur Shastri Facts – Lal Bahadur Shastri was the 2nd Prime Minister of India and a senior leader of the INC party. He was born on 2 October 1904 at his maternal grandparent’s home in Mughalsarai. Shastriji’s father, Shri. Sharada Prasad Srivastava was a local school teacher who later became a clerk in the revenue office at Allahabad. His mother, Smt. Ramdulari Devi was an English teacher at a railway school in Mughalsarai. Here are some more facts about lal bahadur shastri.
Lal Bahadur Shastri Facts – lal bahadur shastri education
In Shastriji’s family, the custom for children was to receive an education in the Urdu language because Urdu had been the language of government for centuries which was later replaced by English. Shastri began his education at the age of four under a Muslim cleric, Budhan Mian. And then in 1917, his entire family shifted to Varanasi and there he joined Harish Chandra High School. At that time, he decided to drop his caste-derived surname of “Srivastava”.
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Lal Bahadur Shastri joined the Indian independence – Lal Bahadur Shastri biography
In the 1920s, Shastri joined the Indian independence movement. He was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru. In 1947, he joined the government and became one of Prime Minister Nehru’s principals, first as Railways Minister (1951–56), and then as Home Minister. During the Indo-Pakistan War in 1965, his slogan of “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” (Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer) became very popular.
Lal Bahadur Shastri as state minister – Lal Bahadur Shastri Facts
Following India’s independence, Shastri was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in Uttar Pradesh. On 15th August 1947, he became the Minister of Police and Transport. When he was Transport Minister, he was the first to appoint women conductors. As the minister in charge of the Police Department, he ordered police to use water jets instead of lathis to disperse unruly crowds.
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Lal Bahadur Shastri as a cabinet minister
In 1951, Shastri was made the General Secretary of All-India Congress Committee with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Prime Minister. He was responsible for the selection of candidates and the direction of publicity and electioneering activities. He played an important role in the Congress Party in Indian General Elections of 1952, 1957 and 1962. He was believed to be employed as home minister of UP but was called to Centre as a minister by Nehru. On 13 May 1952, Shastri was made Minister of Railways in First Cabinet of Republic of India.
Lal Bahadur Shastri as prime minister – Lal Bahadur Shastri Facts
When Jawaharlal Nehru died on 27 May 1964, Congress Party President K. Kamaraj contributed in making Shastri as the Prime Minister. He became the Prime Minister on 9 June 1964.
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Lal Bahadur Shastri marriage
On 16 May 1928, Lal Bahadur Shastri married Lalita Shastri who was from Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. The couple had four sons and two daughters.
Lal Bahadur Shastri Facts – lal bahadur shastri death
Report says that Shastri died due to heart attack but there is various evidence that suggests that Lal Bahadur Shastri did not die of natural death because he was in good condition just a short time before his death. He had no major history of heart disease. At the time of death, his body turned blue which can be referred to some kind of poisoning.
Other reasons are the absence of a post-mortem, lack of serious investigations after his death, and the refusal of the Indian government to release documents relating to his death.
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Lal Bahadur Shastri memorials – Lal Bahadur Shastri Facts
- Shastri was awarded the Bharat Ratna, and a memorial “Vijay Ghat” was built for him in Delhi.
- Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Uttarakhand is after his name.
- The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute was named after him due to his role in promoting scholarly activity between India and Canada.
- In 2011, on Shastri’s 45th death anniversary, UP Government announced to renovate Shastri’s ancestral house at Ramnagar in Varanasi and declared plans to convert it into a biographical museum.
- The Varanasi Airport is named after him, “Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport”
- Many stadiums are named after him in the cities of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Ahmadabad in Gujarat, Kollam, Kerala, and Bhawanipatna in Odisha.
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