By C.P. Belliappa
It was the last week of December in 1965. All of us were at home in Gonikoppal during the term break.
My grandmother had taken a parike (vow) to perform Satyanarayana puja at the temple in Peggala. On 31st December we had an early start, since Ganapathi homa preceded the Satyanarayana puja.
Our grandmother insisted we go empty stomach! We had to carry all the provisions for lunch that was to be served to everyone present at the temple after the conclusion of the puja.
It was an elaborate affair and by lunchtime we were famished and were impatient for the delicious vegetarian food the Brahmins had prepared. The aroma of the food was already wafting in the air. However, we had to wait till the priests finished eating first. The food was finger-licking good as expected. By the time we returned home it was late in the afternoon.
My father, C.M. Poonacha, was a Member of the Rajya Sabha (RS) at the time. A ritual that he followed everyday was to listen to the 9 O’clock news on All India Radio (AIR) before we all sat down for dinner. Right from a young age we too got used to this news bulletin. I remember the three beeps before the newsreader started with the headlines. I think it was Melville de Mellow who read the news on that day in his typical baritone voice.
“Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari has resigned from the Cabinet.” My father was astonished. He increased the volume and gestured to all the children to keep quiet. “Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri has appointed Sachindra Choudhury as the new Finance Minister.”
What Melville de Mellow said next dumbfounded all of us. “C.M. Poonacha has been appointed as the Minister of State for Revenue and Expenditure.” It was unbelievable. When the news was readout in detail, we realised what we heard was correct.
My grandmother walked in hearing all of us shouting and congratulating our father. My father touched his mother’s feet and gave her the spectacular news.
Minutes later the DC and the SP drove in. They gave my father the official communication received from the Prime Minister’s Office. He was to leave for New Delhi the following day. His transport and air ticket had been arranged. Prime Minister Shastri himself wanted to talk to my father earlier in the day, but those were the days of the most unreliable trunk calls!
The swearing-in was on 2nd January 1966. President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office in the presence of Prime Minister Shastri, the new Finance Minister Sachindra Choudhury, Home Minister Gulzarilal Nanda and a few other Cabinet colleagues.
Prime Minister Shastri had great faith and confidence in my father. It was Lal Bahadur Shastri, who as Minister for Commerce, appointed Poonacha as Chairman of State Trading Corporation (1958-1963).
The second Indo-Pak war had ended in September 1965. Lal Bahadur Shastri left for Tashkent on 4th of January 1966 for a Russian brokered summit meeting between the Indian Prime Minister and the President of Pakistan, Gen. Ayub Khan. The ‘Tashkent Declaration’ was signed on 10th January 1966. It was on 11th January that India and the world heard of Prime Minister Shastri’s sudden demise apparently of a cardiac arrest. My father was devastated.
Indira Gandhi took over as the new Prime Minister. My father continued in her Cabinet but with a different portfolio, namely, Minister of State for Transport, Aviation and Shipping. C.M. Poonacha won the 1971 Lok Sabha election from Mangalore-Kodagu Constituency. He was appointed Cabinet Minister for Railways in Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was a friend, philosopher, guide and a role model for my father.
When L B Shastri realised that he gave away too much to Pakistan at Tashkent, the realisation shocked him and caused the cardiac arrest.
That was the unanimous verdict of journalists covering the even at Tashkent.
If you carefully observe the facts surrounding his death, the people he met, conversations he had had etc, you should be able to find the answers yourself.
Few things to ponder upon:
Indira Gandhi was next in line to become the prime minister so she would be the greatest direct beneficiary.
It is very likely that he met Subhash Chandra Bose during his trip. There has been conspiracy theories floating around since the 50s which categorically state that Subhash Bose did not die in the plane crash in 1945 and there is enough evidence to support his escape to Soviet Russia. Shastriji’s third son Sunil Shastri, once mentioned in an interview that shortly before his death, Shastriji had told him that he was going to meet “a special person” very soon. Who was this special person?
The Tashkent man theory adds fuel to the fire. Sidhartha Satbhai commissioned Neil Millar, a former veteran of the Royal Signals Regiment of the British Army, to conduct Facial Mapping and imagery analysis on the video and photographic evidence supplied by Satbhai. Millar firmly concluded that the photographs of the Tashkent man and Subhash Chandra Bose had incredible facial, cranial and Rhinal similarities. Therefore Bose and the Tashkent man, may and very well be one and the same person. We all know that Bose was a master of disguise!
Why did Shastriji, while talking to his family, say something about bringing home a news that would overshadow any ongoing demonstrations(by the opposition) against the release of Haji Pir pass and the Tashkent declaration? Sounds like this news would have created significant ripples in Indian society. It is a well known fact that Shastriji was a staunch supporter of Subhash Chandra Bose and never for once believed that he died in a plane crash. He was very interested in finding the truth about Netaji.
It is quite likely that his phone calls were being monitored by the IB (Intelligence Bureau). If indeed this “incredible news” were to be about Subhash Bose being alive, its would have shaken the Congress Party to the very core of its foundation. The congress party and their allies have always been the biggest supporters of “Bose died in 1945 “ theory, even though the British Intelligence services had expressed their doubts. Therefore they would have suffered huge backlash and quite possibly have lost their status as India’s political family, if it was found that Subhash Bose was indeed alive and well. It is a well known fact that Bose was the biggest threat to the existence of INC and to Gandhian/Nehruvian ideologies even when he was alive. So whom do you think benefits from silencing Shastriji?
Shastriji was hale and hearty when he took his dinner at around 10 PM. A dinner that was cooked by Jan Mohammed, personal cook of the Indian Ambassador, Triloki Nath Kaul. Around 11:30 PM, he was given a glass of milk by his Personal man servant Ram Nath. At around 1:25 am Shastriji started experiencing violent bouts of incessant coughing. Dr. R.N. Chugh was the first to arrive on the Scene after being called to the scene by Shastriji’s personal Assistant, J.N. Sahai.
Before they could depose before the investigative committee, Dr. Chugh’s car met with a fatal collision with a truck (accident or otherwise?) that claimed the lives of his wife Sarojini, son Shailender and severely injured their daughter Shobha. Ram Nath met with a similar fate. As he was riding his bicycle down the road, he was hit by a speeding truck. Both his legs were crushed, necessitating amputation, and suffered a brain injury that affected his memory permanently. Both of them were on the verge of deposing before the Inquiry Committee! This seems like too much of a co-incidence.
Why did the Indian Govt not encourage a post mortem even though the Shastri family firmly requested it? It seems highly improbable that a man occupying one of the highest seats in the government, dies in a foreign land and that too under mysterious circumstances, does not even warrant an investigation. It seems very clear that someone higher up in the echelons of the ruling party desperately needed to hush it all up.
Why hasnt the government released more information under the RTI act? For years people have been requesting for more information, specific requests have been made but to no avail.
Why were there cuts marks on his body if he did die of ‘an acute attack of INFARCT MIOCARDIC’? As reported, no autopsy was carried out by either the Russian Government or the Indian Government, despite repeated requests of the Shastri Family.
There are several questions that yet remain unanswered, just like the mystery surrounding the death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. In fact this may be one of the biggest cover ups in the history of Independent India.
@Prakash
It is very clear that the Covid pandemic has had a devastating effect on you, leaving you with the long Covid effect of cerebral fog, which is so well documented.
@Garadi Mane Questo- Congress must have fed their street dogs very well when they are in power, so dogs like you never forgot. Keep barking, Rahul will be happy .