Shastri’s death will remain a mystery

Forty-three years since the death of India's second prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Centre still keeps the circumstances of his demise under wraps.

In response to a petition filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the government has said it has one document relating to Shastri's death, but it cannot be declassified.

Shastri's family, however, now says it is high time the government came clean on what happened in Tashkent in Uzbekistan, then a part of the Soviet Union, on January 11, 1966, soon after the former prime minister had signed a historic pact with Pakistan's military dictator Ayub Khan.

In its reply to the RTI plea filed by Anuj Dhar, author of CIA's Eye On South Asia, the prime minister's office (PMO) said the disclosure could harm foreign relations, create disruption in the country, and cause a breach of parliamentary privilege.

But senior Congress politician and Shastri's son Anil wants the government to reveal the details "to put to rest lingering suspicions".

"Being his son," Anil Shastri said, "I would like to say there have been doubts lingering in the minds of many people about the mysterious death of Shastriji in Tashkent. I feel the government can dispel suspicions about the cause of his death by declassifying the related information."

Officially, Shastri was declared to have died of myocardial infarction, or a heart attack, but his wife Lalita had alleged that he was poisoned.

Shastri's second son Sunil, who was 16 at the time, too, wants the government to reveal facts about the death "to close the chapter for good".

"His death was a very big shock to us and the entire nation," Sunil Shastri said. "I remember his body had darkish blue spots on the chest, abdomen, and back. We had suspected he had died in mysterious circumstances."

On the PMO's line of reasoning for not declassifying the information on Shastri's death, Anil Shastri said: "There could be various reasons. However, if the government says that revealing the facts would harm foreign relations, I feel the truth may reveal some reprehensible facts."

It has been said that the room in which Shastri was staying in Tashkent had no phones or bells and if he did have a heart attack, being alone in his room, he may not have been able to call for help. "These details themselves point at improper arrangements for him," Anil Shastri said. "We are not even mentioning poisoning here and just drawing from the official cause of his death."

The government has said that no post-mortem examination was conducted on Shastri in the Soviet Union, though his personal doctor, RN Chugh, and some Russian doctors conducted a medical investigation.

The official version is that Shastri was awakened by a severe bout of coughing on January 11, when Chugh came to his aid. Shastri was unable to speak and pointed to a flask kept nearby. A staffer brought some water, which Shastri sipped. Soon he became unconscious and attempts to revive him failed.

The Soviet butler attending on Shastri was arrested for suspected poisoning but later released.