What Triggered Conspiracies Around Lal Bahadur Shastri’s Death?

We also spoke to Shastri’s son, Anil Shastri, to know what his family’s demands are and more. Tune in!

What triggered the conspiracy theories around the death of India’s second PM Lal Bahadur Shastri?

(Photo: The Quint)

In 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India, immortalised the India of his times with the slogan, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”. There was a scarcity of wheat in the country and Shastri raised this slogan as a call for soldiers and farmers to defend India and also increase the production of food grains.

Not long after that his stint was cut short with his sudden untimely death on 11 January 1966, in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, which was then a part of the Soviet Union.

Even many decades after, the circumstances of his death are debated. And on his death anniversary we revisit the missing links that triggered these debates through the accounts of the late veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar who was in to Tashkent with the former Prime Minister.

We also spoke to his son Anil Shastri, who was then only 16-years-old, to know of what Shastri's family's demands are and also what he remembers of his father. Tune in!