Lal Bahadur Shastri Jayanti 2020: India’s Second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s birth anniversary is celebrated on October 2, along with Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary which marks Gandhi Jayanti.
Lal Bahadur Shastri gave his entire life towards the welfare of poor people. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s work, he became a loyal follower and took part in the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. He was a strong Congressman, Lal Bahadur Shastri became India’s first Railway Minister in 1951. Later, he became the Home Minister briefly. Shastri also coined the popular slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, at the time when India and Pakistan were at war during 1965 and India was facing food scarcity.
On the special occasion of his birth anniversary, here are top 10 quotes by Lal Bahadur Shastri:
“My patriotism is subservient to my religion. I cling to India like a child to its mother’s breast, because I feel that she gives me the spiritual nourishment I need. She has the environment that responds to my highest aspiration.”
“Discipline and united action are the real source of strength for the nation.”
“India will have to hang down her head in shame if even one person is left who is said in any way to be untouchable.”
“True democracy or the swaraj of the masses can never come through untruthful and violent means, for the simple reason that the natural corollary to their use would be to remove all opposition through the suppression or extermination of the antagonist.”
“There comes a time in the life of every nation when it stands at the crossroads of history and must choose which way to go.”
“We believe in peace and peaceful development, not only for ourselves but for people all over the world.”
“If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The State has nothing to do with it. The State would look after secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody’s personal concern.”
“I had always been feeling uncomfortable in my mind about giving advice to others and not acting upon it myself.”
“We want freedom for our country, but not at the expense or exploitation of others, not us to degrade other countries…I want the freedom of my country so that other countries may learn something from my free country so that the resources of my country might be utilized for the benefit of mankind.”
“We must fight for peace bravely as we fought in war.”
Also read: ALERT: Prime Minister Modi unveils statue of late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Varanasi
