When Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of India, passed away on a cold night in Tashkent (then part of Soviet Union and now capital of Uzbekistan) after inking an agreement with Pakistani dictator Mohmmad Ayub Khan on January 11, 1966, Siddarth Nath Singh, son of second daughter of Shastri, was only a toddler. He was too small to comprehend the worldly matters.
Singh is 47 now and a member of BJP National Executive. Yet he still cannot figure out as to why no postmortem was conducted on his maternal grandfather's body, why the latter's body had turned blue and why a Russian butler Akhmed Sattarov was arrested after the death.
Singh does not quite understand as to why the Indian government has shied away from declassifying the documents related to the mysterious death. He also has no idea as to why KN Chugh, the doctor-in-attendance to the former PM and half a dozen Russian doctors wrote that INFARKTAMIOCARDA (cardiac arrest) 'can be' considered the cause of Shastri's death and were not sure. Singh does not believe that the deaths of Dr Chugh and Ramnath, a personal attendant of Shastri, were 'accidental'. He has a suspicion that Mohammad Jan, the former cook of TN Kaul, then Indian Ambassador in USSR, who had prepared food for Shastri in Tashkent, may have settled in Pakistan.
Singh, who runs an engineering consultancy in South Delhi apart from being into politics, has failed to get the puzzles resolved despite having submitted a memorandum to President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil and a query in Rajya Sabha through his party member SS Ahluwalia. Besides, around half a dozen queries moved by investigative journalist and author Anuj Dhar on the matter have failed to bring them any closer to truth. But Singh is unfazed and determined to carry forward the battle. His next move may be to knock at the doors of judiciary.
“I will not rest till I demystify Shastriji's death. It's a promise to myself. I owe it to him,” he declares adding that the next logical step in his fight would be to move a court on the matter. An alumnus of Hindu College, Singh is sure that Shastri did not die a 'natural death'. “Dr Chugh and Ramnath died before they were to appear before a committee, set up by Morarji government to inquire into Shastriji's death. It cannot just be a coincident. Moreover, my grandmother late Lalita Shastri swallowed a slip of paper that was found in the former PM's pocket saying that when she failed to protect the PM how could she protect the family,” he claims. He believes that the former PM had scribbled a message for the family.
MYSTERY DEATHS
Lal Bahadur Shastri's death is not the only mystery that has provided grist to conspiracy theorists in India over the years.
The deaths of Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose, Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the old avatar of Bharatiya Janata Party) leaders Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and former Union Railway Minister and Congress leader Lalit Narayan Mishra have continued to be unresolved despite the government having set up several inquiry commissions and committees, and investigative agencies having burnt midnight oil to reach the truth.
Subhas Chandra Bose: The leader of Azad Hind Fauz or Indian National Army, who set up an Indian government in exile and was twice elected as president of Indian National Congress before independence, has continued to live incognito in the country despite having been presumed dead in a plane crash in Taipei (Taiwan) on August 18, 1945.
The Indian government set up a committee Shah Nawaz Committee and a commission Justice MK Mukherjee Commission to inquire into his death but is nowhere near truth.
The four-member Shah Nawaz Committee visited Japan in 1956 to probe the case but could not proceed further as then Indian government did not request for cooperation from Taiwan government. Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry, set up during Atal Behari Vajpayee's rule, however, was categorically told by Taiwan government that no plane crash took place in Taipei on August 18, 1945. A report from United States' Department of State backed the Taiwanese claim. The Commission disputed that the ashes kept in Renkoji temple were of Subhas. Manmohan Singh government, however, rejected the commission's report in 2006.
There is a belief that Bose reached USSR and was kept as a prisoner in Siberia. Researchers VP Saini and Dr Purabi Roy are of the view that the nationalist leader was eliminated in the USSR.
Another belief is that Bhagwanji alias Gumnami baba who lived at Rambhawan in Faizabad till 1985 was Subhas Chandra Bose. Though officially Mukherjee commission did not find enough 'clinching evidence' to this effect, the judge inadvertently told a documentary shoot that Bhagwanji was indeed Netaji Subhas. Anuj Dhar, Journalist and author of a book called Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery, accuses the government of having perpetuated the mystery with a vested interest. He is sure that the government can dig the truth provided it is willing.
“The Government of India can always take a leaf from Swedes' book. After a decade of dogged pursuit, they managed to get the truth about Raoul Wallenberg out from the Russians. The truth is out there. The starting point is Russia. The endgame could be in Russia or Faizabad,” Dhar claims. (NK)
Although, Singh calls his fight 'apolitical' it is apparent that the BJP has for long been trying to embarrass the government on the mysterious death and claim the legacy of the great leader. Before Ahluwalia raised the matter in the Rajya Sabha last year, former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had sought to turn the tables on the government in Parliament in 1970 during a long debate on Shastri's death.
Singh feels the saffron party's 'nationalistic values' has a distinct edge over the Congress and would empower him in fighting for truth. “The only thing I prayed for at his samadhi (Vijay Ghat) was for power so that I can take his name forward. The prayer took me to the BJP in 1996,” he reminisces looking at small frame of Lal Bahadur Shastri that adorns a wooden wall panel on his right.
He says his party leaders have high regard for his late grandfather. He cites the example of how the Vajpayee government declared 1 Moti Lal Nehru Marg, the official residence of Shastri during his prime ministership, a national monument in 2001. Pointing at another frame on the right panel where a beaming Shastri has been captured holding him (two year old) in his lap, he points out that neither his party nor he ever used his Shastri connection to claim a position in politics.
The death of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee on June 23, 1953, in a Kashmir Jail, who was one of the top national leaders of India, is still a mystery. Even thought, six decades have passed since his mysterious death, it is very shameful that the truth has never been seriously investigated and the whole thing was allowed to drift. It was totally inadvisable for the Kashmir government to remove Dr Mookerjee to Kashmir when tension in Jammu was equally possible. This is because everyone must have known that he had suffered a massive heart attack in 1945, and had been consigned to bed for several months. The matter went so far that Dr Mookerjee had to withdraw from the elections of 1945-46. The Hindu Maha Sabha in consequence faired poorly in elections. So, it was very silly on the part of authorities to shift a heart patient like him to the mountains when the same purposes would be served by detaining Dr Mookerjee in the planes of Jammu. The treatment meted out to a VVIP like Dr Mookerjee is also very strange and demeaning. Heaven would not have fallen, if his keen desire to have works in the morning and evening at the Subjail in Srinagar had been fulfilled. It is also that “Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah” had condescended to interfere in such a trivial matter and ruled out the decision of the police chief of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is on record that even overruling Dr Mookerjee, a doctor administered an injection, which caused his death within a few hours on June 22-23, 1953. It is ridiculous that the Government of India never bothered to dispel all these doubts and propagated only to improve its image. Another thing which was not worthy was that a VIP like Dr Mookerjee's stretcher had been housed in a small three-room cottage, one of which was meant for Dr Mookerjee's stay and the another two meant for his two aids, Gaidya and Teckchand. The lawns of beautiful flowers were too small for movement so that Dr Mookerjee who routinely undertook walks in the mourning and afternoon, was tremendously handicapped. It is so shameful that there was no regular supply of letter, newspaper, magazine etc. So much so that a scholar like Dr Mookerjee felt miserable during the period of his detention.
In retrospect, if viewpoints may be put on records, there is no justification for what the Kashmir government of Sheikh Abdullah did. There are doubts about the medical treatment administered to Dr Mookerjee during his four-week detention at Srinagar till his death. Dr Mookerjee was ill-advised to attach too much importance to the Praja Parishad movement of Jammu and there is too much involvement in the same. This actually hit hard the Hindu Maha Sabha movement which took several years to recover from the trauma. Moreover, Dr Mookerjee's health had been worsening and it was not advisable for him to undertake the venture, he pledged himself in. Had he been blessed with a longer life, the Hindu Maha Sabha movement would have fared much better and India would have enriched in the process.
The writer is former National Fellow, Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi
By Prof Prashanto Kumar Chatterji
When asked, why he did not raise the issue during BJP-led NDA rule, he says he heard alarm bells only after the government refused to declassify a document related to Shastri's death in June last year. “I decided to work as a catalyst.” While BJP's deputy leader in Rajya Sabha (Ahluwalia) raised the question in the upper house subsequently, Singh along with his party leaders Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Madan Lal Khurana and Prakash Javdekar went to meet the President. They asked her to 'direct the Government of India to clear all doubts on Shastriji's death which remains an issue even after four decades.
Anuj Dhar, the writer of Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery and CIA's Eye on South Asia who filed six applications under the RTI two each to MEA (Ministry of External Affairs) and Home and one each to PMO (Prime Minister Office) and Delhi Police however, is waiting for hearing of his complaint on denial of information against the PMO in Central Information Commission (CIC). The PMO had refused to provide a classified document to him as it could adversely affect India's relations with a foreign State and lead to disturbances in the country.
“By retaining the documents (related to Shastri's death), the government is perpetuating the mystery. Declassification is the only way out,” says Dhar.
Deendayal Upadhyaya, an ideologue of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), was chosen by Syama Prasad Mookerjee as general secretary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). After Mookerjee's death in 1953, Upadhyaya worked on raising ideological framework of the organisation for a decade and half. In 1968, he rose to be president of the outfit. Deendayal Upadhyaya (50) met a violent death on the night between February 10 and 11, 1968, in or about the Mughalsarai Station Yard in the course of a train journey from Lucknow to Patna by the Pathankot Express. But it was not Jana Sangh alone and people at large but even the Sessions Judge of Varanasi who disbelived the CBI story that two petty thieves had murdered Upadhyaya.
On page 134 of its report, the YV Chandrachud Commission, set up to inquire into his death, opined: "I have taken the view that Shri Upadhyaya was pushed out of the running train, when he was standing near the door of the Ist class compartment of the FCT bogey. It may perhaps be that he wanted to send a telegram to Patna as a final message had yet remained to be sent that he would be arriving by the Sealdah Express. It must be in connection with that purpose that he had taken out the five rupee note. But this is pure speculation."
It is this "pure speculation" that has been made the basis of the Commission's conclusion that Shri Upadhyaya was standing at the door, as if waiting to be pushed out! The position of the body as found on the ground formed another very strong basis for suspicion of a conspiracy. Both medical experts, Dr Bhushan Rao and Dr RN Kataria, were agreed that the kind of head injuries found on Shri Deendayal's body must have caused profuse bleeding. It is strange that while the Commission accepts the absence of such profuse bleeding marks within the compartment as enough reason to preclude the possibility of his being killed within the compartment, it conveniently overlooks the fact that there were no such bleeding marks on the spot where the dead body was found, and believes that he was killed at the spot where the body was found!
The pattern of the injuries and their arrangements formed the crucial point in determining whether such injuries could be caused by a single impact against the traction pole or they were caused in different kinds of blows, Dr Patankar, the civil surgeon of Varanasi, who made out a sketch of injuries on Deendayalji's person after post-mortem examination, showed that injury No 2 was not in alignment with injuries No 1 and 3. The Commission overlooked this only basic document showing the arrangement of the injuries leading to the conclusion that the injuries could not have been caused by dashing against the traction pole in one single impact.
With inputs from Manthan
Family divided
Ironically, Sunil Shastri and Anil Shastri, the only surviving sons of Lal Bahadur Shastri, who supported Siddarth Nath Singh's campaign for release of documents related to the death last year, are no more interested in digging for truth and embarrassing their party, Congress.
Terming it a fight for 'political mileage', sources close to them say that they would not like to be a party to the campaign as it would not bring back their father. “It is futile to follow it. It is a fact that their family had doubts on Shastri's death. But why should a political party take it up?” they ask. The sources point out that Sunil Shastri had asked Chandrasekhar government to look into the matter but the latter could not achieve anything.
“Why didn't the NDA government do anything?” the sources pose adding that Sunil and Anil want to be kept out of the matter. While Anil has been in Congress for long, Sunil who was with the BJP in the past went back to the party one and half year back. The brothers are currently traversing Uttar Pradesh with Rahul Gandhi to wean back dalit voters from ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Lalit Narayan Mishra: Mishra who was Union Railway Minister from 1973 to 1975 was injured in a bomb blast on January 2, 1975 at Samastipur, where he had gone to inaugurate a broad gauge railway line. He was rushed to a small railway hospital at Danapur instead of Darbhanga or Patna which was much closer and had better medical facilities. He passed away a day later. Eight members of a Hindu sect Anand Marg are being tried for his murder. The case has dragged on for 35 years and been heard by over 19 judges. At least four defence lawyers have passed away during the trial. There have been allegations that Mishra was a conduit for illegal payoffs from Russian intelligence agency KGB to Congress party. Former Chief Minister of Bihar and LN Mishra's brother Jaganath Mishra sees a larger conspiracy in his murder. (NK)
Veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayar, who traveled with Lal Bahadur Shastri to Tashkent as Press Advisor, finds the paper slip, butler's arrest and cook-migrated-to-Pakistan stories too dramatic to believe. “I never heard of it (that Lalita Shastri swallowed paper slip). It would have been news in those days. I presumed he died of heart attack. It was a heavy attack. It is difficult to believe he had time to write about something,” Nayar says. The former editor of Indian Express reveals Shastri was worried after signing the Tashkent declaration.
“His own family was unhappy about it.” Nayar does not attach much significance to Ramnath's accident saying that the personal servant never slept in Shastri's room. Claiming that though there is nothing 'factual to go by (to believe in murder theory)' Nayar still makes a case for release of classified documents related to the death.
By Narendra Kaushik
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