2nd October is the day when India celebrates birth anniversary of the two national icons i.e Lal bahadur shastri and the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
Bharat ratna Lal bahadur shastri’s leadership is considered one of the best example of the statesmanship in the nation’s history. Even though Lal bahadur shastri birthday celebration is generally overshadowed, but his character strength and the moral values made his biography popular among the younger generations of the nation.
Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji was a person who stressed on acquiring moral and character strength. He was a person full of simplicity and honesty, and with these two qualities, he became the second Prime Minister of our country. This is the reason why the country still remembers him and honours him.
The country remembers him for the slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan“, which he gave during the Indo-Pak war in 1965. He was envisioned to make the country self-sufficient in food grains, which led to the birth of green revolution and the white revolution in the country. He was the one who strengthened the courage of the country during the war, which led to the victory of the country over Pakistan.
The slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan still is the source of inspiration to all the Indians. The slogan points the importance of the services by the defence personals and the farmers towards the nation building. The role of the soldier is equal to that of the role of farmers, as they both work day and night for the nation and people residing in it. Many years later, the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee added “Jai Vigyan”, to the slogan given by Shastri Ji.
Lal Bahadur Shastri Ji was a person who has also contributed to the freedom struggle of the country. He joined the freedom struggle in the year 1920 and was the part of Mahatma Gandhi’s Non- Cooperation movement of 1921, Dandhi March of 1930, and Quit India Movement of 1942.
Shastri Ji’s dedication and honesty towards his duties can be understood by an incident while he was working as a railway minister, he resigned from his post, after a train accident. He believed that he was responsible for the accident, and hence, took the decision of resigning from the post of railway minister.
Shastri Ji, while working as the Uttar Pradesh’s Minister of Police and Transport, during the Congress reign, ordered the policeman to use water jets to control the crowd and not lathis. He was the first transport minister who opened the post of women conductors in the bus.
He was the person who believed in unity and wanted the country to be united so that they can fight against any enemy. He believed that not even a single person in the country should be called untouchable. He said the main challenge for the country is poverty, diseases and ignorance. If we want our country to achieve success, we should not fight with each other, but instead should fight with the factors that act as a hurdle in the development of the country.
His contribution and ideals are still relevant and can turn out to be the strong pillar for today’s generation. Today, the coming generation of the country should be made aware of the ideals of Shastri Ji. Today, every Indian needs to excel the qualities like Shastri Ji. He was the perfect example of a person with simplicity, humility, humanism, austerity, hard work, dedication and nationalism.
These qualities are the need of the hour. Today, when the country is going through a crisis, it is necessary to understand and follow the ideas of Shastri Ji, that act as a great solution to come out of it. Let us get together and work to make our people and our country free from the existing crisis.
This will be the best way to celebrate and pay tribute to the great leader of the country.
