Lal Bahadur Shastri Death: Lal Bahadur Shastri's life was taken by CIA? CIA Mystery: Did the American intelligence agency CIA kill Dr Homi Bhabha and Lal Bahadur Shastri? sparked debate
In fact, China conducted its first nuclear test in October 1964, shortly after Nehru's death. Due to this the debate of making atomic bomb in India also intensified. Atomic bomb should be made, the biggest name among its supporters was the famous nuclear scientist Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha.
After China's nuclear test, voices for the atomic bomb were getting louder from within the Congress Party and also from the opposition side. However, Shastri was not ready to move away from the policy of peaceful use of nuclear energy. In those same days, Dr Bhabha said in a public statement that if the government decides, India can make a nuclear bomb within one and a half years. Hearing this, the ears of foreign powers like America also stood up. Here in India, those who talked about the atomic bomb got a big voice in the form of Dr. Bhabha.
Recently, two camps were formed in the Congress on this issue. In November 1964, the All India Congress Committee session was held in Durgapur, West Bengal. It is said that more than 100 members demanded that whether atomic bombs should be made or not, there should be a separate discussion on this. It was a very uncomfortable situation for Prime Minister Shastri. Proposals were made and discussed, although in the end Congress decided that India would not engage in a blind nuclear arms race. Shastri had said, “Right now we cannot think of making an atomic bomb in India. We should make efforts towards eliminating nuclear bombs from all over the world.
But soon another challenge came in front of the Prime Minister Shastri, who came out of the Durgapur convention, on this issue. Barely two weeks after the Congress session, the opposition raised the issue of China's atomic bomb in Parliament. The government was heavily criticized for being hesitant about making an atomic bomb. It was time to split the vote. Seeing the angry camp on this issue in the Congress, it seemed that the government might be in trouble, but then the opposition's proposal was rejected by voice vote. Prime Minister Shastri, however, had indicated in his subsequent statement that he agreed with Dr Bhabha's opinion and that nuclear devices should be made for peaceful use.
After this gesture from the Prime Minister, Dr. Bhabha vigorously engaged in his work. He went to America in February 1965. It is said that Dr Bhabha had also told the American officials that India can make a nuclear bomb in 18 months and if American help is available then this work can be done in six months. As soon as it came to light, there was such an uproar in Pakistan that its President General Ayub Khan and Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, both rushed to China. In April 1965, he met Chinese President Chou En Lai in Beijing.
In the same year, Pakistan infiltrated into Kashmir. After that what the Indian Army under the leadership of Prime Minister Shastri did, is a glorious chapter in the war history of India. This war had a profound impact on India's policy regarding nuclear weapons. In fact, Pakistan had the support of both America and China and both these countries were ahead of India in terms of nuclear weapons. It is said that during that war itself, Shastri had asked Dr Bhabha to prepare for the nuclear test. India's declared nuclear policy may have talked about peace, but the wars of 1962 and then 1965 changed the ground reality.
But after defeating Pakistan badly in the 1965 war, when Prime Minister Shastri went to Tashkent at the invitation of the Soviet Union, India suffered a major setback there. On 10 January 1966, Shastri signed the agreement to return the conquered territories to Pakistan and he died on 11 January. His sudden death like this raised many questions. Officially it was told that Shastri died of a heart attack, but suspicions were also raised that he was murdered. Initially, an attempt was made to turn the needle of suspicion towards the KGB, Russia's intelligence agency, but without success. One reason was that after the death of Shastri ji, Russia had asked for postmortem, secondly it had immediately arrested the Russian assistant who was posted in Shastri ji's service. Well, the postmortem of Shastri ji's body was neither done in Russia nor in India.
In this case, the suspicion of the involvement of the US intelligence agency CIA is deeper than the KGB. The reason for this is the statement of Robert Crowley, a senior officer of the department associated with the CIA's intelligence operations. According to the book 'Conversations with the Crow' by journalist Gregory Douglas, CIA agent Crowley had said that the CIA was involved in the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri.
In a conversation with Douglas, Robert Crowley called Dr Bhabha 'dangerous'. He said, 'He was going to Vienna. There he would create more trouble for us. In the same journey, a bomb placed in the cargo of his plane exploded. We could also have bombed Vienna in a plane, but we decided that the high mountain would be better. It was better to take a chance of killing a couple of mountain goats than to shoot down a plane that big in a big city.
According to Douglas' book, Crowley also claimed that 'we also settled Shastri'. These people had come very close to making the bomb. What if they had used it against their Pakistani enemies? After that they would threaten us. They were having nexus with the Russians.
Crowley's statements reflect the American attitude towards Prime Minister Shastri at that time. Describing Shastri as 'dangerous', he had said that he had started the 'program to make atomic bombs'. Bhabha was very capable and he could accomplish this task. So we killed both of them.
The suspicion of conspiracy behind Shastri's death is also deep because the witnesses who were around him in his last moments died in accidents one after the other. In 1970, his special attendant Ramnath was crushed by a truck. When Shastri ji's health deteriorated, the car of Dr. Chugh, who had come to checkup him, was also hit by the truck, killing the doctor sitting in the vehicle and many of his family members.
What happened in the hotel in Tashkent that night of 10 and 11 January may have been a veil of mystery, but a few days later, on 24 January, India's nuclear program leader Dr Bhabha also died in a plane crash. The conspiracy aspect that happened cannot be easily dismissed.
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