Remember the slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”! The new generation with smart phones and Facebook and Whatsapp may not have heard of it or who introduced the Green Revolution and White Revolution. It’s all a Google click away. When the nation celebrates with much fanfare the birth anniversary of the Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi, in the official circles there is a small function of garlanding a small man’s portrait who was also born the same day Gandhiji was born but 35 years later in 1904. That was India’s second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, a man of simple living and high thoughts. He was also the second Prime Minister of India after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru on May 27, 1964. He took over the reins at a time when India was in the grip of a drought and food crisis and was also recovering from the effects of 1962 Indo-China war. From the military point of view, the Indian army was also highly demoralized. Taking advantage of this situation, Pakistan attacked India. 

Relatively new to the high office, he led the country successfully through Indo-Pakistan War in 1965. It was during this time he coined the slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” to honour the two important pillars of society and also recognizing the need for self-sustenance and self-reliance. Taking into account the country’s abysmal food production, he introduced the Green revolution which later in the years changed the rural economy of the country. He was a man of exceptional will power that was belied by his small frail stature and soft-spoken manner. He was against the prevailing caste system and therefore decided to drop his surname. The title "Shastri" was given after the completion of his graduation at Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi in 1925. The title Shastri refers to a scholar. 

His death is also shrouded in mystery like that of Subhash Chandra Bose. The Indo-Pak war ended on September 23, 1965 after the United Nations passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire. The Russian Prime Minister, Kosygin, offered to mediate and on January 10, 1966, Lal Bahadur Shastri and his Pakistan counterpart Ayub Khan signed the Tashkent Declaration. But that night Shastri died of a reported cardiac arrest in Tashkent. That mystery too is yet to be solved.