Story of Lal Bahadur Shastri’s untimely demise — and why some refuse to believe the official version

Shastri was a byword for honesty and rectitude in public life

Born in Mughalsarai near Varanasi in 1904, Shastri dedicated his youth to the freedom struggle. Post-Independence, he quickly rose up the ranks of the Indian National Congress, the result of both his administrative capabilities and his integrity. Consider this:

As Railways Minister in 1956, Shastri twice offered his resignation after two train accidents that killed more than a hundred people each. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru rejected his offer the first time, but was unable to persuade Shastri to change his mind on the second occasion.

He spoke glowingly in Lok Sabha about Shastri: “No man can wish for a better comrade and better colleague in any undertaking — a man of highest integrity, loyalty, devoted to ideals, a man of conscience and a man of hard work.”

By the time of Nehru’s passing in 1964, Shastri was among his closest aides, and almost universally liked within the party. This propelled him to the prime ministership, despite there being question marks about Shastri’s ability to lead the country during tough times. “The capacity to listen patiently and to act decisively is the hallmark of democratic leadership. It is in the latter capacity that Shastri has still to be tested…,” The Indian Express wrote in an editorial.

Shastri passed the test with flying colours, championing a number of economic policies to boost agriculture, and successfully thwarting Pakistan’s attempt to seize Kashmir in August 1965. He authorised the armed forces to cross the international border in a retaliatory attack, and pushed for negotiations from a point of strength. It was at the culmination of these negotiations that Shastri met his untimely death.

The midnight tragedy in Tashkent, rumours of poisoning

At 4 pm on January 10, 1966 Shastri and Pakistan President Muhammad Ayub Khan signed the Tashkent Declaration, which sought to introduce a lasting framework to ensure peace between India and Pakistan. He died hours later.

According to the account of his biographer C P Srivastava, a former civil servant who was a part of Shastri’s delegation in Tashkent, the Prime Minister had a light meal late in the evening, prepared by the cook of the Indian ambassador in Moscow, and a glass of milk at around 11.30 pm.

He then went to bed, only to wake up coughing around 1.25 am. He called for his doctor, Dr R N Chugh. But by the time Dr Chugh arrived, Shastri was too far gone. He passed away at 1.32 am.

Many people at the time believed that Shastri was poisoned, a theory that was given credence by the bluish tint his body had taken when he arrived in India. This, however, was a result of the embalming process, Srivastava wrote in Lal Bahadur Shastri: A Life of Truth in Politics (1996).

“The colour of Shastri’s face at the time of death was normal, without any change. It was only after the embalming of the body that the face became blue,” he wrote.

That said, a post mortem examination was never carried out, which has given rise to a certain air of mystery around Shastri’s death. As to why no autopsy was carried out, Srivastava wrote:

“… [A] team of USSR doctors, as well as the prime minister’s own physician, Dr Chugh, had given a clear and categorical verdict as to the cause of death, as Shastri had a history of two previous heart attacks… there was no other circumstance pointing to the need for a postmortem examination”. He added that at the time, his family too did not ask for a post-mortem.

Speculation continues

That said, Shastri’s family has since then asked for details around his death on several occasions. And multiple events around Shastri’s death, and since then, have fuelled conspiracy theories.

For instance, in the morning after Shastri’s demise, the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency, detained the butler working at Shastri’s villa in Tashkent. Ahmed Sattarov was interrogated, some say tortured, by the KGB, which reportedly suspected poisoning. The specifics of these interrogations are still not known to the public.

Many people have raised the question as to why the Indian government did not follow up on Sattarov’s detention, and the KGB’s reported theory. After all, there appeared to be some smoke there.

In 1977, the Janata government set up a parliamentary inquiry into Shastri’s death under Raj Narain. However, nothing much came of it. Notably, while the inquiry was on, Dr Chugh and his family were run over by a truck. Only one of his daughters survived.

In 2019, in response to a RTI enquiry, the Prime Minister’s Office refused to declassify the single file it claimed to have pertaining to the event.