User:Aumnamahashiva/sandbox

Sandbox

Lal Bahadur Shastri, the third Prime Minister of India, died in office on 11 January 1966, aged 61, while in Tashkent, then the capital of the Uzbek SSR in the Soviet Union and now the capital of Uzbekistan. His death was officially attributed to heart failure resulting from a myocardial infarction, which has been generally accepted by his biographers and several journalists, though the circumstances of his death have nevertheless generated conspiracy theories that he was assassinated.

Background
Both during his early political career and as a cabinet minister, Shastri's health had been fragile, and he was known to overwork himself; in October 1958, he experienced a heart attack which resulted in several weeks of hospitalisation. His health caused concern prior to his succeeding Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister. In June 1964, he experienced a second, though mild, heart attack, which did not require hospitalisation, but which forced him to rest until July, when he recovered completely.
 * Previous health concerns

On 4 September 1965, the Premier of the Soviet Union, Alexei Kosygin, sent a letter to Shastri in which the Soviet Union formally offered to mediate a peace settlement between India and Pakistan. Both countries had been engaged in armed conflict since a covert infiltration of Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistani forces in August. India accepted the Soviet offer on 18 September, followed by Pakistan on 11 November. Both countries agreed to a ceasefire on 23 September, following a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted on 20 September.
 * Tashkent Conference

On 23 November, Shastri agreed to meet the President of Pakistan, Muhammad Ayub Khan, for talks in Tashkent, and conveyed India's formal acceptance to the Soviet government on 2 December. Two weeks before the conference began, Kosygin dispatched a personal advisor, Leonid Zamyatin, to Tashkent to finalise accommodations and protocol arrangements. On 30 December, Kosygin arrived in Tashkent with his personal physician, arranged for local doctors to be ready as needed, and personally made sure chefs would be available who could prepare the dishes preferred by the Indian and Pakistani leaders; advised that Shastri was a strict vegetarian, Kosygin ensured Shastri would be served accordingly.

Shastri flew from Delhi's Palam Airport to Tashkent on 3 January 1966, accompanied by a government delegation which comprised Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan, External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh, Foreign Secretary Chandra Shekhar Jha, Home Secretary Lallan Prasad Singh and Vice Chief of the Army Staff Lieutenant-General Paramasiva Prabhakar Kumaramangalam. Accompanying the prime minister were his principal secretary Lakshmi Kant Jha and his additional private secretary (and later biographer) Chandrika Prasad Srivastava. India's ambassador to the Soviet Union, Triloki Nath Kaul, and the Indian high commissioner to Pakistan Kewal Singh Choudhary, were also included.

List

 * Key
 * Died in office

JD (1989–1990, 1996–1998) LJP (2000–2002, 2004–2020)

Ravi Shankar Prasad