---

Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Punyatithi
• Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on 2 October 1904 at Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh.
• His father was a teacher who died when Lal Bahadur Shastri was only one and a half years old.
• He was sent to live with an uncle in Varanasi so that he could complete his high school. Everyone at home used to call him by the name of 'Nanhe'.
• As he grew up, Lal Bahadur Shastri became more interested in the country's struggle for freedom from foreign yoke. He was greatly impressed by Mahatma Gandhi's denunciation of the Indian princes for their support of British rule in India.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri was just sixteen when Gandhiji called upon his countrymen to join the non-cooperation movement.
• He decided to give up his studies in response to Mahatma Gandhi’s call.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri joined the Kashi Vidya Peeth in Varanasi, one of the many national institutions set up in defiance of the British rule.
• 'Shastri' was the bachelor’s degree awarded to him by the Kashi Vidya Peeth but has stuck in the minds of the people as a part of his name.
• In 1927, he got married, Lalita Devi and in dowry, there was a spinning wheel and a few yards of handspun cloth. He didn't want anything more as dowry.
• In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi marched to Dandi breaking the salt law. The symbolic gesture brought a kind of revolution in the whole country. Lal Bahadur Shastri joined this struggle for freedom with feverish energy. He led many defiant campaigns and spent a total of seven years in British jails.
• He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in his home state of Uttar Pradesh and soon rose to the position of Home Minister.
• He moved to New Delhi in 1951 and held several portfolios in the Union Cabinet – Minister for Railways; Minister for Transport and Communications; Minister for Commerce and Industry; Home Minister and during Nehru ji's illness, remained minister without portfolio.
• He resigned his post as Minister for Railway, because he felt responsible for a railway accident in which many lives were lost. The unprecedented gesture was greatly appreciated by country and the Parliament.
• The then Prime Minister, Pt. Nehru, speaking in Parliament on this incident, extolled Lal Bahadur Shastri’s integrity and high ideals. He said he has accepting the resignation because it would set an example in constitutional propriety and not because Lal Bahadur Shastri was in any way responsible for what had happened.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri was deeply influenced by the political teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. 'Hardwork is equal to prayer' he once said, in accents profoundly reminiscent of his master Mahatma Gandhi Lal Bahadur Shastri, who has similar thoughts to Mahatma Gandhi, is the best identity in Indian culture.
• Lal Bahadur Shastri was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award 'Bharat Ratna' in 1966.
• He was the Prime Minister of India from June 9, 1964 to January 11, 1966.
• Shastri died under mysterious circumstances on January 11, 1966 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).

---