By Our Staff Reporter
New Delhi, 20 Mar: Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan launched Sanjeev Chopra’s book, ‘The Great Conciliator: Lal Bahadur Shastri and the Transformation of India’ on 18 March at the Fountain Lawn of IIC, here, to a packed audience of over six hundred people from all walks of life.
Serving and retired members of the civil services, diplomatic corps, defence personnel, academics, media persons, students and activists came together to listen to the author and the distinguished panelists on this book about the second Prime Minister of India.
In his opening remarks, Chopra spelt out his reasons for writing these one hundred and fifty thousand words of referenced work on the person on whom the National Academy of Administration, where he began and ended his thirty-six year journey as an IAS officer, is named. Chopra said that he was appalled at the lack of scholarship on the person whose name is the herald of the apex civil services training institution. He decided to fill this gap by carrying out comprehensive research into the life, times, institutions and people who shaped the life of Lal Bahadur, who had consciously dropped his Kayastha identity as a schoolboy. Shastri was an academic degree conferred on him after he successfully cleared the four-year programme in the nationalist Kashi Vidyapeeth, an institution founded by Mahatma Gandhi after he gave a call to students to quit all institutions affiliated to or recognised by the British government.
In his keynote address, Arif Mohammad Khan dwelt on the politics of sacrifice, which was the leitmotif of Indian polity before, and immediately after Independence. Politics was service, it was a commitment to the people, rather than an office of profit. He spoke about the leadership provided by Shastri, not just as the Prime Minister, but also as a Minister in UP and the Centre. His resignation as the Railway Minister in the wake of a railway accident not only showed a rare sense of propriety, but also a willingness to shoulder responsibility. Khan specifically talked about how Shastri was able to galvanise the nation with his stirring slogan of ‘Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan’, for these were the two areas where India was weak in the early sixties. India had just lost a war with China, and together with YB Chavan, the then Defence Minister, he boosted the morale of the army by giving them the honour, dignity and facilities to live up to the expectations of the nation. Khan also discussed the role of Shastri as a great institution builder – from the BSF to the CBI, from the RPF to the NDDB, from the APC (later CACP) to the PMO – all the institutions that are today synonymous with governance were indeed his creations. He spoke of how Shastri was a ‘Dheer Purush’, a person of steady wisdom, who drew his inspiration from the Bhagwad Gita’s concept of Sthit Pragya. He hoped that the young aspirants to the civil services, and those who have already entered the portals of the LBSNAA would pay heed to ‘Sheelam Param Bhushanam’: Humility is the best embellishment’, which in many ways epitomised the life of Shastri.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Shekhar Gupta, who recalled how Shastri tackled India’s most difficult decade, and how his sense of humor could disarm one and all. Complimenting the author on his ability to write a book with such documentation and detail, he hoped that this book would open the floodgates of new information about Shastri’s life as a volunteer of the Servants of People society and his untouchability eradication work in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.
Earlier, the unveiling of the book was done by Arif Mohammad Khan in the presence of IIC Director, KN Srivastava, Sunil Shastri, Adarsh Shastri, veteran journalist Prem Prakash, the founder of ANI news, Ajai Chowdhary, founder of HCL, Dr Aishwarya Pandit, Ravi Mishra, Joint Director of PMML, and Rashmi Chopra, Chairperson of the VoW Foundation.
Neera Shastri; Diwakar Shastri; Prem Prakash; Robin Gupta, retd IAS; retd IPS SK Bhagat; Manmohan Malhotra; Brijesh Tripathi; Suhas Borker, Trustee of IIC; Col Girja Shankar Mungali; Laxmi Shankar Bajpai; Mamata Kiran; Sanjay Abhigyan, Amar Ujala; Sanjiv Zutshi, The Polo Company; Satish Sharma, Garhwal Post; Rajendra Ratnoo, IAS, Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management; Deepankar Aron, Jt Secy, Ministry of Chemicals, his wife Saloni; Chandu Arya; Nalini Mishra; Vanita Khaitan; Shahnaab Alam, film producer; Ratnajyoti Dutta, veteran journalist; Col DPK Pillay, author; Gagan Sinha; Mahesh & Marium; Sandeep (ex-Ambassador to Ireland); PK Gera, his wife Dr Rani; Charanjeet; Savita Grover & Shivani Chhabra, Hotel Madhuban family; actor Mukesh Tyagi, his wife Suman; Mehak Oberoi; Sanjeev Ranjan; Dr Ruchika Rungta; Hridesh Mohan; Chandan Sinha; Ashok Kumar Suri, his wife Neeru; Sanjeev Chopra‘s daughter Yauvanika; Anup Thakur, former Chairman; Secretary to GoI Alok Sinha; Surina Rajan; PK Gera; Shalini Prasad, ex Member Secretary of Tarriff Commisison; SN Tripathi, Director of IIPA; ex Tourism Minister and author KJ Alphons; Kunal Jalali; Meenakshi Singh; IIC Library team: Usha Munshi, and Kanchan Nagpal; Secretary of Nagaland Assembly PJ Anthony; From West Bengal: Meena & V Subramanian (Retd Secy MNRE, GOI); Manjushri & Sumanta Chaudhuri; Chandan Sinha; Pawan Aggarwal; Atanu Purkayastha; Poonam & CK Sharma (UP), PK Tripathi, former Chief Secy, Delhi; retd IAS SK Mattoo, his retd IPS wife Renuka Mattoo; Lt Gen PJS Pannu (retd); retd IAF officer Praful Bakshi; Disha Pannu, Director of Postal Services; Harshit Gupta; Eika Chaturvedi Banerjee; Dr Sheetal Singh from LBS Museum and Memorial; VoW volunteers Shalini Butola, Sachin Chauhan, Lakshika Bajaj; Shailendra Kant; students of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan who sang the National Anthem; and in excess of 600 guests including Lal Bahadur Shastri’s family; senior officers, Sanjeev Chopra‘s batchmates; IASOWA members, were present amongst others.
