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74 PoliticsinIndiasinceIndependence unresolved problems like poverty, inequality, communal and regional the disintegration of the country.lure of the democratic project or even From Nehru to Shastri The ease with which the succession after Nehru took place proved all the critics wrong. When Nehru passed away, K. Kamraj, the president of the Congress party consulted party leaders and Congress members Lal Bahadur of Parliament and found that there was a consensus in favour of Lal Shastri Bahadur Shastri. He was unanimously chosen as the leader of the (1904-1966): Congress parliamentary party and thus became the country’s next India; participated Prime Minister. Shastri was a non-controversial leader from Uttar in the freedom Nehru had come to depend a lot on him in his last year. He wasars. movement since known for his simplicity and his commitment to principles. Earlier 1930; minister he had resigned from the position of Railway Minister accepting moral in UP cabinet; responsibility for a major railway accident. General Secretary of Congress; Shastri was the country’s Prime Minister from 1964 to 1966. Minister in Union During Shastri’s brief Prime Ministership, the country faced two Cabinet from major challenges. While India was still recovering from the economic 1951 to 1956 when implications of the war with China, failed monsoons, drought and he resigned taking previous chapter, the country also faced a war with Pakistan inn the responsibility for 1965. Shastri’s famous slogan ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’, symbolised the the railway accident country’s resolve to face both these challenges. and later from 1957 to 1964; coined the Shastri’s Prime Ministership came to an abrupt end on 11 January famous slogan ‘Jai 1966, when he suddenly expired in Tashkent, then in USSR and Jawan-Jai Kisan’. currently the capital of Uzbekistan. He was there to discuss and sign an agreement with Muhammad Ayub Khan, the then President of Pakistan, to end the war. …newPrime From Shastri to Indira Gandhi MinisterofIndia,inspite Thus the Congress faced the challenge of political succession for the ofallforebodings,hadbeen“econd time in two years. This time there was an intense competition between Morarji Desai and Indira Gandhi. Morarji Desai had earlier namedwithmoredispatch, served as Chief Minister of Bombay state (today’s Maharashtra and “ andmuchmoredignity, Gujarat) and also as a Minister at the centre. Indira Gandhi, the thanwasthenewPrime daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, had been Congress President in the MinisterofBritain. past and had also been Union Minister for Information in the Shastri cabinet. This time the senior leaders in the party decided to back Indira Gandhi, but the decision was not unanimous. The contest Editorial in The Guardian,s resolved through a secret ballot among Congress MPs. Indira London, 3 June 1964, two-thirds of the party’s MPs. A peaceful transition of power, despite succession after Nehrul intense competition for leadership, was seen as a sign of maturity of with the succession dramIndia’s democracy. Britain.rold Macmillan in Reprint 2026-27