t.com www.GOALias.blogspot.com www.GOALias.blogspot.com

www.GOALias.blogspot.com84 Politics in India since IndependenceLal BahadurShastri(1904-1966):Prime Minister ofIndia; participatedin the freedommovement since1930; ministerin UP cabinet;General Secretaryof Congress;Minister in UnionCabinet from1951 to 1956 whenhe resigned takingresponsibility forthe railway accidentand later from 1957to 1964; coined thefamous slogan ‘JaiJawan-Jai Kisan’.“…new PrimeMinister of India, in spiteof all forebodings, had beennamed with more dispatch,and much more dignity,than was the new PrimeMinister of Britain.“Editorial in The Guardian,London, 3 June 1964,comparing the politicalsuccession after Nehruwith the succession dramaafter Harold Macmillan inBritain.unresolved problems like poverty, inequality, communal and regionaldivisions etc. could lead to a failure of the democratic project or eventhe disintegration of the country.From Nehru to ShastriThe ease with which the succession after Nehru took place proved allthe critics wrong. When Nehru passed away, K. Kamraj, the presidentof the Congress party consulted party leaders and Congress membersof Parliament and found that there was a consensus in favour of LalBahadur Shastri. He was unanimously chosen as the leader of theCongress parliamentary party and thus became the country’s nextPrime Minister. Shastri was a non-controversial leader from UttarPradesh who had been a Minister in Nehru’s cabinet for many years.Nehru had come to depend a lot on him in his last year. He wasknown for his simplicity and his commitment to principles. Earlierhe had resigned from the position of Railway Minister accepting moralresponsibility for a major railway accident.Shastri was the country’s Prime Minister from 1964 to 1966.During Shastri’s brief Prime Ministership, the country faced twomajor challenges. While India was still recovering from the economicimplications of the war with China, failed monsoons, drought andserious food crisis presented a grave challenge. As discussed in theprevious chapter, the country also faced a war with Pakistan in1965. Shastri’s famous slogan ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’, symbolised thecountry’s resolve to face both these challenges.Shastri’s Prime Ministership came to an abrupt end on 10 January1966, when he suddenly expired in Tashkent, then in USSR andcurrently the capital of Uzbekistan. He was there to discuss and signan agreement with Muhammad Ayub Khan, the then President ofPakistan, to end the war.From Shastri to Indira GandhiThus the Congress faced the challenge of political succession for thesecond time in two years. This time there was an intense competitionbetween Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi. Morarji Desai had earlierserved as Chief Minister of Bombay state (today’s Maharashtra andGujarat) and also as a Minister at the centre. Indira Gandhi, thedaughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, had been Congress President in thepast and had also been Union Minister for Information in the Shastricabinet. This time the senior leaders in the party decided to backIndira Gandhi, but the decision was not unanimous. The contestwas resolved through a secret ballot among Congress MPs. IndiraGandhi defeated Morarji Desai by securing the support of more thantwo-thirds of the party’s MPs. A peaceful transition of power, despiteintense competition for leadership, was seen as a sign of maturity ofIndia’s democracy.