Header Ads Widget

Buzz

6/recent/ticker-posts

An Epitome of Political Morality: Lal Bahadur Shashtri

On the eve of Gandhi Jayanti or what the world says International Day of Non-Violence, the other great who shares his birthday with Mahatma Gandhi, gets much less discussion than his contributions warrants. A true Gandhian in his ideology, and probably the most righteous politician of Indian history, Lal Bahadur Shashtri.

A picture of Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shashtri on their birthday

When the country is in turmoil and people are trending twitter for asking for resignations of finance ministers, even some chief ministers, There was a politician who himself resigned from the office as a moral responsibility. And today I will be telling about the same incident from the Indian political history.

Lal Bahadur Shashtri - the Man

Lal Bahadur Shashtri was born on 2nd October 1904 in the city of Mughalsarai to Sharad Prasad Shrivastava and Ram Dulari Devi. After the death of his father during his childhood years, he spent most of his early years in his maternal grandparents' home. It was during his school years, he got influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and his call for non-cooperation. A young Shashtri decided to skip his final exams in support of the Non-Cooperation movement. He enrolled in as a volunteer for Indian National Congress and served for the betterment of the masses. He is even said to drop his cast-derived surname for the sake of oneness with the Harijans.

Picture of Shastri Ji on his office

Interesting to know is that his title of Shashtri was only adopted by him after he passed his bachelor's from Kashi Vidyapeeth (then newly established). It was one of the few educational institutions at that time which provided a degree of "Shashtri" and "Acharya". One of the direct instructors of Shashtri Ji was Acharya JB Kriplani, a lifelong Gandhian himself. A very visible influence of Gandhian ideology on our beloved ex-Prime Minister.


Setting an Example

It was during the years before he became Prime Minister when he was serving as the Union Rail Minister in Nehru Cabinet. Indian Railways was still in its infancy as an organization under Indian control. In 1956, there was a railway accident in Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu. This tragedy resulted in 144 deaths. While the reason for this accident was attributed to being technical in nature, Shastri promptly submitted his resignation to the PM and pleaded for its early acceptance as a gesture of moral responsibility for the accident despite the fact that he had absolutely no role in the accident. 

This resignation offered by Shastri attracted nation-wide attention. Soon after the Ariyalur accident media appeared to be in support of Shashtri Ji, one editorial even quoting ‘accidents happen in the best-regulated railways, but then accidents ought to be exceptions rather than the rule.’. In his resignation letter, Shastri felt that ‘it will be good for me and the Government as a whole, if I quietly quit the office I hold.’ 

While, I won't be debating if the resignation should have been accepted or not, but this act of Lal Bahadur Shashtri Ji shows his integrity, morality, and sense of devotion for the job. 

Legacy

In the field of politics, where righteousness is desired but rarely observed, it is very difficult to be an ardent follower of any particular ideology, we have seen people shifting from Left Wing to Right Wing, from Right to Centre, from conservative to liberal, etc. Hardly a handful of politicians are there who remain true to their fundamentals (barring lifelong Communist party men from countries like erstwhile Soviet, China, and North Korea). 

During my research for this article, I was searching for more such examples where a minister might have taken moral responsibility for something. And in 70+ years of history, I could find only three more railway ministers, Nitish Kumar (1999) taking moral responsibility for the Gaisal Train disaster, Mamta Banarjee and Suresh Prabhu offering to resign (was not accepted). There have been very few such cases (mostly before the so-called new generation of politicians took over)

I would wish you all on Gandhi Jayanti and Shashtri Jayanti in the hopes that we uphold the morals set by these legends and act to preserve the nation which our forefathers gave us after so much struggle. Till then, 

~Ciao 

Post a Comment

0 Comments