If Lal Bahadur Sastri did not die this fateful day 50 years back, Rahul Gandhi could be a mid level manager in some non descript private company, only to boast about his great grand father being the first Prime Minister of India and grandma being a Central Minister, instead of being the CEO and Scion of Congress Inc. Only difference, the CEO of a company is accountable to the share holders, where as Rahul Gandhi is accountable to none.
Lal Bahadur Sastri was a diminutive man with a towering personality. A charismatic man of umpteenth principle, during his 1 1/2 years of being at helm, he could capture the imagination of millions of Indians. Thinking him as weak, Pakistan attacked India in 1965, soon to be rebuffed. His slogan of the time JAI JAWAN, JAI KISAAN (Hail Soldiers, Hail Farmers) swiftly yielded results, in the form of yield by Farmers which was enough to wipe out India's perennial grain shortage and in the form of motivating the soldiers who gave a befitting response to the attacking Pakis by reaching the outskirts of Lahore.
Sastri's untimely, premature and unfortunate death brought Indira Gandhi to power, who soon consolidated her power and made the Congress Party her family ZAMINDARI (feudal property). Soon others emulated her, except the Communists (though I have no love for them, I admire them for resisting the family fiefdom politics) and to some extent BJP, almost all parties, regional or otherwise, are now family held Inc. From the Badal dynasty of Punjab in North to Karunanidhi dynasty in South, from the Biju Dynasty in East, to Siv Sena Dynasty in West, we have examples aplenty. I am sure the history of India would have been different and our generation who were born in late 1960s and early 1970s would have seen a different India today, if Sastri Jee did not die on that fateful cold Soviet night in Tashkent of 11th January 1966, exactly 50 years ago.
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