For Lal Bahadur Shastri, austerity began at home

LUCKNOW: During the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri appealed to the nation to fast for a day, but before doing so, he tried it on his family. Only when his children sustained the fast, did he turn to the nation and following his appeal, Monday fast remained a regular feature throughout the war. “Father asked our mother not to cook a particular meal and see if the children could bear to skip that meal and we passed the test,” recalled the former PM’s son, Anil Shastri, who was in the first year of graduation at that time.
Recalling the day the three service chiefs informed Shastri about attack of the Pakistani forces in the Chamb sector and their crossing the Indian border with 100 Patton tanks, Anil Shastri said, “We were having dinner, when chiefs of defence informed him about the attack. He asked for only 10 minutes and went back to tell them to launch air attack on Pakistan. It was the first time Indian Air Force would take part in war after Independence. In order to save precious time, he did not even consult his cabinet ministers and showed no sign of anxiety as he returned to his meal after the meeting.”
Younger son of the former PM, Sunil Shastri too recalled some moments and said, “I was 15-year-old then and had accompanied Babuji to the Halwara airbase. At around 4 am, he woke me up and told me we were going to meet the jawans to enquire about their well being. When we reached the border, my father went near the border to gauge the actual situation. At that time, someone from the Pakistani side identified him as the PM of India, after which senior Army officials including Lieutenant General Harbaksh Singh and jawans surrounded him and escorted him to a safe place. Such was the charisma of the ex-PM, which motivated members of the armed forces to fight bravely.”
When Shastri, who gave the slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ visited Major Bhupinder Singh at Delhi’s Military Hospital admitted for injuries in the first Indo-Pak War of 1965, Singh wept like a child. Anil Shastri recounted, saying, “When my father saw the severely injured Major Bhupinder Singh, he smiled and asked him: ‘What is this, Major?’ The army officer was so moved that he started crying, and said in a choked voice that it was his misfortune that he was not in a position even to salute the Prime Minister.”
Anil Shastri added that during the war, bunkers were created at 10 Janpath (the then official residence of India’s PM), and when the sirens blew, most of the members of the Shastri household panicked, but Lal Bahadur Shastri reacted coolly and would lead the family members and staff to a safer place.
“My father slept for barely 4-5 hours a day and rest of the time his focus was on the war. He had made a map of the Indian sub-continent and used to mark places our forces had captured. It was his style of monitoring the war scenario,” recalled Anil Shastri.