Narendra Modi government has forgotten Lal Bahadur Shastri: son Anil Shastri

BAREILLY: While the nation celebrated October 2 as Gandhi Jayanti, few remembered that it was also the birth anniversary of former prime minister, late Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was born on this day in 1904. Pained at the apathy shown towards his father by the government, his son Anil Shastri said PM Narendra Modi could at least have made a public statement to express his reverence for Shastriji.

"If you can use my father's name during election campaigning and chant his slogan 'jai jawan' and 'jai kisan' from the ramparts of the Red Fort in your Independence day address, then it was your duty to recognize his contribution and organize an event in his memory along with the 'Swachh Bharat abhiyan'," Anil Shastri told TOI. Lal Bahadur Shastri was PM from 1964-1966.

A senior Congress leader, Shastri said, "Nobody can deny the fact that Lal Bahadur Shastri still holds relevance given the fact that his name was systematically propped up by the BJP and PM Modi during election campaigning to win the support of the masses and build his mage as one who holds persons like my late father in great reverence. However, now it seems that the whole effort was guided by political exigencies rather than genuine feelings."

He added that at a time when the entire nation is being brought together on a common platform to recreate the Gandhian aura, why did the government not care to organize a single event or programme in memory of his father, who commanded equal respect like other great men of that era.

He expressed anguish at the fact that when quarter page birth anniversary ads are issued in newspapers across the country by state and central governments, "why was one not issued in my late father's memory".

Shastri added that Lal Bahadur Shastri tensure is still looked upon with awe in political circles but sadly neither Modi nor his government now seems keen on allotting him any space in their agenda of governance.