Within a span of 13 days, the lives of two great sons of India, former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (61), and a brilliant nuclear physicist, Dr. Homi J. Bhabha (56), were dramatically cut short.
Then five years later, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai (52), father of India’s space programme, died mysteriously. Were these deaths in fact due to natural causes? Or were they unwitting victims off an evil plot that marked the global geopolitics of that time
On January 11, 1966, just a day after the signing of a historic peace treaty, the world received news that the then Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri, had died of a cardiac arrest in Tashkent, part of the erstwhile Soviet Union and now in Uzbekistan.
As signatories to the historic Tashkent Peace Treaty, both Shastri and the then Pakistan President, the late Gen Ayub Khan, had travelled to Tashkent to attend a peace meeting to end the 1965 Indo-Pak conflict. The talks were brokered by the then Soviet President Alexie Kosygin.
Following the tragic news, there was little that the India could do at that time except to quietly accept the fact that Shastri’s death had indeed been a result of natural causes. After all, he was 61 and with a frail constitution. But it hasn’t stopped the dark undercurrents of doubts and misgivings that soon began to surface, not just in India but around the world as well.
Manifold documented evidence suggests alleged external influence behind a covert operation to eliminate the former prime minister. No headway could be made by Indian agencies investigating the case at the time, as the evidence proved to be inconclusive.
The Tashkent Files – Who Killed Shastri?
The Tashkent Files – Who Killed Shastri? is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language thriller film about the death of former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri; written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri.
The film stars Shweta Basu Prasad, Naseeruddin Shah, Mithun Chakraborty, Pankaj Tripathi, Pallavi Joshi, Prakash Belawadi and Mandira Bedi. It was released on 12 April 2019, and received two National Film Awards.
Who Killed Shastri?
The Tashkent Files is also non-fiction book by director Vivek Agnihotri about his research for the film and outlines various theories about the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri. It was released in August 2020 by Bloomsbury India.
Indian N-scientist dies in Air India plane crash
But Shastri’s death was just the beginning of something bigger. something much eviler as a sinister plot began to unfold with an unrelenting certainty.
On January 24, 1966, barely 13 days later, while the country was still reeling from the shock of the untimely death of the prime minister, the country received another devastating blow with the news of the death of Nuclear Physicist, Dr Homi J. Bhabha, a brilliant scientist, in a plane crash. He was the founder and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India.
Air India Flight 101, Boeing 707-437, ‘Kanchenjunja’ was on a scheduled passenger flight from Bombay (present-day Mumbai) to London, via Delhi, Beirut, and Geneva. The flight accidentally crashed into Mont Blanc in France, killing all 117 people on board, including 11 crew members.
Dr Bhabha (56) had pioneered and laid down the road map for India’s emergence and development as a nuclear nation. He was traveling to Vienna to attend a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEAC), when the crash occurred. The brilliant scientist was travelling to Vienna from New Delhi in October 1965, (almost three weeks after the end of the Indo-Pak conflict).
As early as 1965, Bhabha had announced over All India Radio (AIR) that India had the capability to make an atomic bomb in 18 months.
He strongly believed that that there were significant sectors where nuclear energy could be used for peaceful purposes, particularly in the areas of power, agriculture and medicine.
Some years later, evidence emerged of the involvement of the CIA in the plane crash resulting in the death of Dr. Homi J. Bhabha.
On July 11, 2008, an alleged conversation between a journalist Gregory Douglas and a CIA officer, Robert T. Crowley, reproduced by media service, TBR News.org, had revealed decisive facts about the plane crash, resulting in Dr. Homi J. Bhabha’s death.
Crowley was quoted as saying “We had trouble with India in the 60’s when they got uppity and started work on an atomic bomb. What was even more disturbing then was that the CIA had alleged that India had begun to show a decisive tilt towards the Soviet Union.
Shadowy whispers of a macabre plot to swiftly and silently eliminate a national leader, of no less a stature than the Prime Minister himself, still persist in the corridors of power in New Delhi, and still a subject of speculation within global media circles.
Jawaharlal Nehru plays the ‘Non-Aligned card’
Earlier, when India was trying to find its feet as an emerging, free and democratic nation, the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had politely rebuffed US overtures of an alliance as a ‘close friend and ally’ (read that as ‘puppet’).
Nehru’s plea was that India wished to remain a non-aligned nation. In time, the Non-Aligned Movement gained traction and 120 countries became its members.
While there was no obvious reaction post NAM by the US Administration, there was a marked shift in regional equations in South Asia, with a marked tilt towards Pakistan.
Although he never lived to see the day, Dr. Bhabha’s dream became a reality on May 18, 1974, when India tested its first atomic device at Pokhran, code-named “Smiling Buddha”.
What was most astounding about this whole operation, was that India was able to maintain complete secrecy about the nuclear test. This was despite the fact that US surveillance satellites high up in space were able to monitor the minutest of activities anywhere in India on the ground, particularly with respect to defence, security and high-profile political matters.
The Buddha is smiling
However, the world got its first clue of what had happened when India let the cat out of the bag with the cryptic message: “The Buddha is smiling”.
To be sure, that certainly ruffled a lot of feathers around the world, including the two great super-powers of that time – Russia and the United States, the two main protagonists of the Cold War.
This was certainly the most brilliant ‘coup de grace’ on the part of India’s then Prime Minister, the late Indira Gandhi. It also sent out a strong message to the world that India wasn’t going to kowtow to anyone no matter what.
Dr. Vikram Sarabhai’s sudden death
And finally, just five years later, we come to the baffling and unsolved mystery of Space scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai’s death, at the peak of his career as the Father of India’s Space Programme.
He was found dead at his Kovalam beach resort in Kerala on December 30, 1971. That day itself, he was to review the design of the SLV rocket before his departure for Mumbai. A day prior to his passing, he was totally fit and had held meetings/discussions with scientists and experts.
That same night, he had spoken to APJ Kalam over the phone. An hour later he had died and the cause of death was given out as cardiac arrest. His family members were against the idea of an autopsy so his body was immediately taken to Ahmedabad for cremation.
It may seem odd at first, but on hindsight it somehow seems to make sense given the circumstances surrounding Dr. Sarabhai’s death. On several occasions during his lifetime, the father of India’s space programme had told friends, colleagues, associates and family member that every now and then he would get this strong feeling that he was being secretly watched.
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Dr. Nambi Narayanan, a space scientist, who had worked under Dr. Sarabhai on the ISRO project, has written in his biography that he was of the opinion that international powers were involved in the death of Dr. Sarabhai
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Dr. Narayanan has also mentioned in his biography that questions posed by his (Dr. Sarabhai’s) death are many. “If he was eliminated, it is quite likely there was a conspiracy behind it”
He goes on to add “He was a man who had never smoked in his life, was a teetotaler …. And why was he cremated without an autopsy”.
This writer had the privilege to personally meet and talk to Dr. Narayanan during a private visit to Muscat, Oman, in 2015.
The eminent scientist was invited by the Malayalam Social Club, Muscat, to interact with the Indian community in a series of informal gatherings and lectures.
Except for the sad and sudden ending, Dr. Sarabhai’s life had all the ingredients of a fairy tale. He was born into a rich, Gujarati industrialist family, excelled in his graduate and post-graduate studies at Cambridge, UK.
His wife Mrinalini was a renowned exponent of Indian classical dance. He had two gifted children, daughter Mallika, an actress, Indian classical dancer and social activist and son Kartikeya.
But his legacy of a strong and enduring space programme has endured and progressed to lofty heights under capable and illustrious predecessors.
The ground-breaking work by both Dr. Bhabha and Dr. Sarabhai became the inspiration for the Indian web series “Rocket Boys”, which is based on true events, particularly the lives and careers of Indian scientists Dr. Homi J. Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.
However, the show also includes fictionalised elements and dramatised accounts, especially concerning certain character portrayals and plotlines.
In essence, “Rocket Boys” is a blend of factual historical events and dramatised fictional elements, making it a compelling narrative about India’s scientific journey while acknowledging its creative liberties.
In the end, the lives, deeds and works of people such as Lal Bahadur Shastri, Dr Homi J. Bhabha and Dr Vikram Sarabhai (and many such others) characterise not just their personal achievements and resilience, but epitomises the strength of a nation, undeterred in its goals to reach beyond the stars.
