Lal Bahadur Shastri - Mystery Behind Lal Bahadur Shastri's Death

Mystery Behind Lal Bahadur Shastri's Death

Shastri's sudden death immediately after signing the Tashkent Pact with Pakistan has raised many questions in the minds of Indian citizens. The Prime minister of India going to Tashkent for a pact and never coming back has not been accepted easily by Indian citizens. His health was fit as per his personal physician Dr. R.N. Chugh and he has had no sign of heart trouble before.

Shastri's sudden death has led to persistent conspiracy theories that he was poisoned. The first inquiry into his death was conducted by the Raj Narain Inquiry, as it came to be known, however did not come up with any conclusions and today no record of this inquiry exists with the Indian Parliament's library. It was alleged that no post-mortem was done on Shastri, but the Indian government in 2009, claimed it did have a report of a medical investigation conducted by Shastri's personal physician Dr. R.N. Chugh and some Russian doctors. Furthermore, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) revealed that there was no record of any destruction or loss of documents in the PMO having a bearing on Shastri's death.

The possible existence of a conspiracy was covered in India by the Outlook magazine. In 2009, when Anuj Dhar, the author of the book, CIA's Eye on South Asia, asked the Prime Minister's Office under an RTI plea (Right to Information Act), to declassify a document supposedly related to Shastri's death, the PMO refused to oblige, reportedly citing that this could lead to harming of foreign relations, cause disruption in the country and cause breach of parliamentary privileges.

An epic poetry book in Hindi titled Lalita Ke Aansoo written by Krant M. L. Verma was published in 1978. In this book the tragic story about the death of Shastri has been narrated by his wife Lalita Shastri.

There are still serious doubts which are been taken on his death. His son Sunil Shastri asks govt to unravel mystery behind Lal Bahadur Shastri's death. . He has also demanded that the government should unravel the mystery shrouding his father's death. Raising doubts about the dark blue spots and cut marks on the abdomen of his father's body after his death in 1966, Shastri's son Sunil asked that when the postmortem was not conducted, then how the cut marks appeared.

After Shastri's death in Tashkent, USSR, on January 11, 1966 soon after signing the Tashkent Pact with Pakistan, his wife Lalita Shastri had alleged he was poisoned. A query was later posed by Anuj Dhar, author of CIA's Eye on South Asia, under the Right to Information Act about his death but the government had refused to part with classified information on the issue. The Prime Minister's Office, while refusing information under the RTI Act on the cause and circumstances of Shastri's death, had said revealing these details could harm India's foreign relations and would violate Parliamentary Privilege. The government had admitted no postmortem was conducted on Shastri. However, his personal doctor RN Chugh and some Russian doctors conducted a medical examination. The Russian butler attending on Shastri at the time of his death was arrested for suspected poisoning but released later as per the news source. It was maintained that Shastri had died of cardiac arrest but his family insisted he was poisoned. .

Shastri went to USSR for the Tashkent talks, wanted a promise from Ayub Khan that Pakistan would never use force in the future. But the talks did not proceed. What followed the next day was Shastri’s Death. . Indian Government released no information about his Death and the media then was kept Silent. When Kuldip Nayar filed an RTI to access information on Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Death, the government replied that PMO has cited exemption from disclosure on the plea that it could harm foreign relations, cause disruption in the country and cause breach of parliamentary privileges. The home ministry is yet to respond to queries whether India conducted a post-mortem on Shastri and if the government had investigated allegations of foul play. The Delhi Police in their reply to the RTI application said they do not have any record pertaining to Shastri's death. The Ministry of External Affairs has already said no post-mortem was conducted in USSR. The Central Public Information Officer of Delhi Police in his reply dated July 29 said, "No such record related to the death of the former prime minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri is available in this district... Hence the requisite information pertaining to New Delhi district may please be treated as nil." This has created more doubts.

The PMO answered only two questions of the RTI application saying it has only one classified document pertaining to the death of Shastri which is exempted from disclosure under the RTI Act. It sent rest of the questions to Ministry of External Affairs and Home Ministry to answer. The MEA said only document from the erstwhile Soviet Government is "the report of the Joint Medical Investigation conducted by a team comprising Dr R N Chugh, Doctor in-Attendance to the PM and some Russian doctors" and added no post-mortem was conducted in the USSR. The Home Ministry referred the matter to Delhi Police and National Archives for the response pertaining to any post-mortem conducted on the body of Shastri in India. Sunil Shastri, son of the former prime minister, called the transferring of application as "absurd" and "silly joke". "He (Lal Bahadur Shastri) died as sitting prime minister. It sounds very silly that MHA is referring the matter of death of second prime minister of India to a district level police. He also demanded that "It should be looked into by highest authorities like president, prime minister and home minister."