Shastri rose to highest position without any advantages of birth, wealth: Arif Mohammed Khan

New Delhi, Mar 18 (PTI) Bihar Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Tuesday said former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri was a leader who rose to the highest position in the country without any advantages of birth, wealth or privilege.

Khan was speaking at an event here to release a book on the life of Shastri -- The Great Conciliator - Lal Bahadur Shastri and the Transformation of India -- written by Sanjeev Chopra, former director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration.

Khan said Shastri firmly believed that if there was a conflict between economic and ethical interests, one should prefer the ethical and not bother about the economic.

"This is an opportunity to pay my tributes to the memory of a great Indian who rose to the highest position in the country without any advantages of birth, wealth or privilege. It was the spirit of democracy deeply entrenched in the Indian psyche inherited from our ancient spiritual and cultural ethos, the functioning reality of Indian democracy and not merely a theoretical principle that prepared the ground for him to assume the mantle of leadership at a very difficult time in our history," Khan said, remembering the legacy of Shastri.

"It was due entirely to his force of character and integrity of life. These things enabled him to rise to the top," the Bihar governor said.

He said Shastri did not want democracy to function in a way that the lives of millions of people remained impoverished.

"His successful initiatives to bring about white revolution and subsequently green revolution paved the way for great transformation and benefited the farmers and the country a great deal," he said.

He said whenever there was any conflict in the Congress circles in any province, he was called upon to go, approach the problem and try to settle it in almost all cases.

"This is what his contemporaries have said, that in almost all cases he succeeded in reconciling the conflicting people and their interests but ultimately when the conflict with Pakistan came, he fought back. He gave instructions to the Army not to withdraw and not to relent but to do their duty," he said.

Khan said it was the time when people saw a determined leader who rose to his height.

"He made stirring speeches, made enthusiastic appeals to people and became a people's hero. He gave energy and vigour to the Indians," he added. PTI AO KSS KSS

Source: PTI