Anil Kumar Shastri is the eldest son of Lal Bahadur Shastri, a former Prime Minister of India and Lalita Shastri. He is the Chairman of the Hindi Department in All India Congress Committee, Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management and Trustee of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Memorial Trust. He was elected to the ninth Lok Sabha from Varanasi in 1989 as member of Janata Dal and was a Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India.
He has set up three institutions and is the Chairman of Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management & Technology, Bareilly, Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Technology & Management, Indore and Lal Bahadur Shastri polytechnic, Manda, Allahabad.
What changes do you see in today's farmers in comparison to Lal Bahadur Shastri era?
Today’s farmers are much aware of what is going on in parliament in relation to agricultural laws, that’s why since the introduction of farm laws in the parliament, they started protesting against these laws calling it Black laws & draconian laws.
According to my opinion, this ongoing protest is obvious too and central government should have tried to resolve this fear and suspicion prevailed amongst farmers and it is the duty of government to satisfy the needs and demands of farmers and also should not ignore their feelings.
As the laws made in Parliament are for benefit of people if Farmers are not happy the government must look into it.
Why Shastri Ji called for once a week fast in the nation?
It was during the India-Pakistan war, there was an incidence, America warned India to stop the war with Pakistan for the continuation of wheat imports. At that time red wheat was imported from America, so Lal Bahadur Shastri called the nation for observing fast once in a week to have self-sufficiency in food.
Does the government delay in controlling COVID-19?
Yes... If we look that Rahul Gandhi earlier warned about COVID-19 outbreak but the government has taken it lightly and busy in planning upcoming Namaste Trump Event, this accelerated the spread of COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown announced much later.
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If Shastri Ji was alive what will be the situation or what we are lacking today?
Shastri Ji was very much aware of the situation at ground level and also aware of the problems of local people. He established various vigilance bodies like CVC & CBI. Today we need that kind of leadership.
This interview was taken by Pritam Kashyap, Senior Journalist, Krishi Jagran on focusing the discussion on New Farm Laws and Vision of Lal Bahadur Shastri i.e. Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan.