From Siliconeer.com, an affectionate portrait of  India’s third Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, a man of impressive integrity and character, who supposedly died of a heart attack (some say he was poisoned) in Tashkent, soon after winning the second Indo-Pakistan war in 1965.

Soft, but Never Weak

“….. Lal Bahadur Shastri never sought power, never was keen to stick to power. Twice he resigned from his post. Once when a railway accident occurred and he took the moral responsibility, second time to build the party organization. It was his nature of being ajatshatru (a man without an enemy) and his capability to remain friendly to people whose views he opposed such as Nehru and Purushottam Das Tandon meant he was also favored by opposite camps. He never said a word even in jest which could hurt someone. He spoke in simple sentences. It was these qualities that made him dear to all. But when the test came, he never failed.

And they came soon enough. On August 31, 1965, when war broke out between India and Pakistan, and he was woken [sic] at 3 a.m. in the morning to be told that Pakistan’s army was marching toward Chamb area, it did not take him even five minutes to give the Indian army a free hand to retaliate with full force and open a new front to occupy Lahore. Scholars had their doubts if Nehru would have given orders to cross borders in this case. When after the ceasefire a conference between him and President Ayub Khan of Pakistan was organized in Tashkent, he insisted that a clause should be added in the peace agreement that never again would force be used to settle problems. When Ayub seemed reluctant to agree to that, he replied, “Then you have to find another PM to negotiate with.” This clause was added at the last minute, when Ayub wrote that in his own handwriting.Ayub’s hand-written assurance is still preserved in Indian archives.

“His other test came in handling India’s food crisis in 1965. He was supposed to visit the U.S. The date was fixed, but President Lyndon Johnson decided that he would like Shastri’s visit to coincide with Ayub’s visit. That Shastri refused. He also refused to cancel his visit to Canada which was scheduled to take place at the same time. He visited Canada, but cancelled his visit to the U.S. He also refused to be pressured to accept wheat of inferior quality under PL 480 that the U.S. was to send to India. Instead he appealed to the nation that all its citizens should have one meal less per day so the poor could be fed. Before announcing that to the nation he asked his wife not to cook the evening meal. He also asked people to grow food even in their houses

“But Shastri’s legacy is not in his rule. Shastriji stands for austerity, simplicity and integrity. He never sought power to be rich. There are so many tales told by those who were close to him. Sumangal Prakash, a Gandhian who marched with Gandhiji during the Salt satyagraha, tells us how even as a prime minister he could not afford a decent coat in winter. Once he had to go some event in Bihar and he did not have a coat. He asked a tailor to take four of his old coats — all made of Khadi — and make into one. He could not afford to get new sets of teeth or a new pair of glasses. He never let his children use his name to gain favor from anyone. He never let them use the official car for private use. His son Anil had to use public transportation to go to school.

My brother told me an incident. He went to Lucknow once when Shastriji was a minister in the U.P. Government. He phoned Shastriji. Shastriji invited him but with a warning, “Your bhabhi (sister-in-law) is not at home today, so you will not get a cooked meal. You have to make do with whatever there is.” How many ministers are there whose wives cook their own meal? And how many prime ministers are there who washed their own clothes every day and polished their own shoes? Once Shastri was visiting Varanasi to attend an event in the winter. The famous Hindi poet Mahadevi Varma noticed that he had no socks. She asked him, “Don’t you feel cold?” He replied, “I have only two pairs of heavy woolen foreign socks, which I wear when I have to go to a cold country like Russia.” Nehru had to lend him a mink coat when as a home minister, he was sent to Kashmir in winter.

And yet, he arranged to send a helicopter to shower flowers on a newly wed couple in a village, where the bride was the daughter of one of his poor friends, who spent time with him in prison during the freedom movement. Shastri was the only home minister without a home of his own.”