The death of Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri, former Prime Minister of the country, in Tashkent on January 11, 1966 still remains a mystery. There are still serious doubts surrounding the nature of his death. Mr. Shastri had gone to Tashkent to sign a pact with Pakistan after the Indo-Pak war. According to Dr. RN Chugh, his personal physician, Mr. Shastri had no sign of heart trouble before. Yet he was said to have died due to a heart attack. This raised many questions and doubts about the cause of his death. But his family insisted that he was poisoned. However enquiries and investigations maintained that he had died of cardiac arrest, and that is the official version However, Mr. Gregory Douglas, an American journalist, who had interviewed the former CIA operative Mr. Robert Crowley, had published a book and in it he claimed that the CIA was responsible for eliminating Mr. Shastri. He said that the USA was wary of India’s rigid stand on nuclear policy and its decision to go ahead with nuclear tests. He also said that the CIA was more worried about collective domination of India and
Russia Over the region for which a strong deterrent was required. Mr. Shastri was the Prime Minister from June 1964 to January 1966. He became very popular among the people.
"In this vast country of ours, people profess different religions, speak different languages, dress differently and observe different customs; but we are one nation; the history of our struggle for independence and our faith in our future development are our common bonds".
