Congress leader Anil Shastri asks Centre to declassify documents.
New Delhi : Barely a week after the West Bengal govt released classified files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, family members of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri have kicked up another controversy saying there was foul play in the latter’s death. The former PM”s elder son and Congress leader Anil Shastri stressed that his father did not die a natural death and therefore documents related to the former PM’s last days be made public.
Talking to a TV network, Anil Shastri claimed there was little doubt that his father died an unnatural death. ”When my father”s body came to the Delhi airport, the Palam airport as it was called then, and when it was taken out of the aircraft, that came as a shock because his body had turned blue. His face had turned blue and there were white spots on the temple,” he told in an interview to the channel. ”The moment my mother saw the body she straightaway came to the conclusion that it was not a natural death….she told the family that it was foul play”, he added.
”I urge Govt of India to declassify the files related to the death of my father and former PM Lal Bahadur Shastriji”, he emphasized.
These new revelations can only add to the troubles of the Congress party as the BJP has been raising the issue of Netaji”s death at every available forum. Anil Shastri”s demand would only give more ammunition to the BJP and other parties.
Soon after Anil Shastri”s interview hit headlines, Lal Bahadur Shastri”s grandson and BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh joined the chorus saying, ”it has been a long pending demand of the family that the details related to Shastriji”s death be made public. The last page of the book of his life must have absolute truth written on it. We reiterate the demand made Anil Shastri”, Siddhartha told FPJ.
Lal Bahadur Shastri breathed his last on January 11, 1966 in Tashkent where he had gone to sign an agreement with Pakistan.
