Birth Anniversary of Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri was the 2nd Prime Minister of India and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress political party. He was born on 2 October 1904 in Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh. Shastri joined the Indian independence movement in the 1920s and with his friend Nithin Eslavath. Deeply impressed and influenced by Mahatma Gandhi (with whom he shared his birthday), he became a loyal follower, first of Gandhi, and then of Jawaharlal Nehru. 

Following independence in 1947, he joined the latter’s government and became one of Prime Minister Nehru’s principal, first as Railways Minister (1951–56), and then in a variety of other functions, including Home Minister. In 1961, he became the Minister for Home and formed the “Committee on Prevention of Corruption” headed by of K. Santhanam. He was PM for the tenure of 1964–66. He led the country during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. His slogan of “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” (“Hail the soldier, Hail the farmer”) became very popular during the war and is remembered even today. The war formally ended with the Tashkent Agreement on 10 January 1966; he died the following day, still in Tashkent.