Tashkent Files (2019)
It was 1966. India had just won a war with Pakistan after marching into Lahore with their tanks a year earlier. With his slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan' (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer), Lal Bahadur Shastri, tried to instil nationalism and boost food production. He remains one of the most liked and cleanest PM. He shares his birthdate with MK Gandhi, but only a few remember.
He goes to Tashkent (then in Soviet Russia, now Uzbekistan) to sign a declaration of peace with Pakistan with a clean bill of health but returns in a body bag. Just hours prior to sudden breathlessness in the wee of hours of the morning, he had called home.
A national leader's death, a man of his stature, would typically require pre-set protocols to be followed. Unfortunately, in spite of his family's request for a post mortem, it was not done. Their insistence that Shashtri had skin discolouration and there were cuts over his neck area which were passed off as usual postmortem by a panel of English doctors.
Even KGB had suspected poisoning as a cause of death. The butler who served the PM with his nightcap was interrogated in detail on the day of death, but details of this cross-examination mysteriously went missing.
Back home, even though experts agreed that toxicological studies were mandatory to rule out poisoning, none were performed.
With the passage of time, the calls for wanting to know what actually happened in Tashkent was forgotten. Some claim that the people in power systemically suppressed it. That changed with the democratisation of information. Google was God-sent! That too and the secret KGB files that were exposed after the collapse of the Soviet Union by Vasili Mitrokhin. Retired CIA agent, Robert Crowley's 2009 interview on the Agency's involvement in the assassination of Homi Bhabha and Shastri is out in the open.
The internet not only tells of various points of view of a single event but also remains a fertile ground for conspiracy theories and mongers of fake news, just to prove their point. The premise of this film is just to put on the table all these theories for us to decide whether there is such a thing as the truth or knowing the real truth is a luxury that eludes everyone.
The records related to Shastri's death inquiry are precariously missing. Post mortem was never done. Toxicology screening was never performed. The two witnesses at the time of Shastri's death who were to appear at an inquiry many years later had mysteriously been hit by cars. Dr Chugh, his physician, died on the spot. The other witness, his helper, Ramnath, had memory loss.
The CIA, not wanting another nuclear power in the region after China detonated its first atomic bomb in 1964, orchestrated Homi Bhabha's plane crash in the Alps. Shastri, who had earlier incisively brought the Pakistanis to their knees, was viewed by the Americans as a dangerous man. His close liaison with Bhabha, India's father of Nuclear Science, made them hot under their collars.
According to Mitrokhin Archive, Moscow had a very cordial relationship with Nehru and India. It is said that Russia had a strong influence on the politics of India. It backed Gulzarilal and Sastri's candidature for the PM to keep the right-wing Hindu traditionalist for succeeding after Nehru's eclipse. It is also suggested that Indira Gandhi (codenamed VANO by the KGB) was under their payroll. During her later tenure, the Russians had a free hand in policing, defence and information dissemination in India.
It is interesting to note that there is a significant disparity in how ratings for this movie are given in different media platforms. If one were to get all their juices from the mainstream media, with the assigned ratings of 0.5 to 2/5, one would go home with the idea that it a thrashy piece of Bollywood wasteland. On Twitter, however, the landscape is quite different. Scores of good reviews 3.5-4.5/5 sing praises of its high standards of storytelling and direction. I understand not everybody can appreciate the sight of half a dozen India men and women of different expertise sitting a room engaged in a shouting match. Many may not enjoy the cerebral nature of some of its discussions and the glaring absence of songs and dances in this offering. There surely must be a time and place for everything.
What really happened to Sashtri in Tashkent remains shrouded in mystery till today. Perhaps there was a concerted effort to keep his legacy in the shadows. A well-liked leader, an honest, conscientious, decisive leader who preaches peace with his neighbours is no good for creating a despotic regime. Both Pakistan and India resolve their differences - unthinkable! Maybe that is why he had to be terminated to be replaced by a subservient servant of the Cabal!
https://www.dailyo.in/politics/lal-bahadur-shastri-tashkent-kgb-russia-rti-congress-pmo-mea-tn-kaul/story/1/8393.html
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/inothernews/lal-bahadur-shastri-conspiracy/#.h1gnlbwq6
https://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/2008-October/000400.html
https://mitrokhinarchiveii.blogspot.com/
It was 1966. India had just won a war with Pakistan after marching into Lahore with their tanks a year earlier. With his slogan 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan' (Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer), Lal Bahadur Shastri, tried to instil nationalism and boost food production. He remains one of the most liked and cleanest PM. He shares his birthdate with MK Gandhi, but only a few remember.He goes to Tashkent (then in Soviet Russia, now Uzbekistan) to sign a declaration of peace with Pakistan with a clean bill of health but returns in a body bag. Just hours prior to sudden breathlessness in the wee of hours of the morning, he had called home.
A national leader's death, a man of his stature, would typically require pre-set protocols to be followed. Unfortunately, in spite of his family's request for a post mortem, it was not done. Their insistence that Shashtri had skin discolouration and there were cuts over his neck area which were passed off as usual postmortem by a panel of English doctors.
Even KGB had suspected poisoning as a cause of death. The butler who served the PM with his nightcap was interrogated in detail on the day of death, but details of this cross-examination mysteriously went missing.
Back home, even though experts agreed that toxicological studies were mandatory to rule out poisoning, none were performed.
With the passage of time, the calls for wanting to know what actually happened in Tashkent was forgotten. Some claim that the people in power systemically suppressed it. That changed with the democratisation of information. Google was God-sent! That too and the secret KGB files that were exposed after the collapse of the Soviet Union by Vasili Mitrokhin. Retired CIA agent, Robert Crowley's 2009 interview on the Agency's involvement in the assassination of Homi Bhabha and Shastri is out in the open.
The internet not only tells of various points of view of a single event but also remains a fertile ground for conspiracy theories and mongers of fake news, just to prove their point. The premise of this film is just to put on the table all these theories for us to decide whether there is such a thing as the truth or knowing the real truth is a luxury that eludes everyone.The records related to Shastri's death inquiry are precariously missing. Post mortem was never done. Toxicology screening was never performed. The two witnesses at the time of Shastri's death who were to appear at an inquiry many years later had mysteriously been hit by cars. Dr Chugh, his physician, died on the spot. The other witness, his helper, Ramnath, had memory loss.
The CIA, not wanting another nuclear power in the region after China detonated its first atomic bomb in 1964, orchestrated Homi Bhabha's plane crash in the Alps. Shastri, who had earlier incisively brought the Pakistanis to their knees, was viewed by the Americans as a dangerous man. His close liaison with Bhabha, India's father of Nuclear Science, made them hot under their collars.
According to Mitrokhin Archive, Moscow had a very cordial relationship with Nehru and India. It is said that Russia had a strong influence on the politics of India. It backed Gulzarilal and Sastri's candidature for the PM to keep the right-wing Hindu traditionalist for succeeding after Nehru's eclipse. It is also suggested that Indira Gandhi (codenamed VANO by the KGB) was under their payroll. During her later tenure, the Russians had a free hand in policing, defence and information dissemination in India.
It is interesting to note that there is a significant disparity in how ratings for this movie are given in different media platforms. If one were to get all their juices from the mainstream media, with the assigned ratings of 0.5 to 2/5, one would go home with the idea that it a thrashy piece of Bollywood wasteland. On Twitter, however, the landscape is quite different. Scores of good reviews 3.5-4.5/5 sing praises of its high standards of storytelling and direction. I understand not everybody can appreciate the sight of half a dozen India men and women of different expertise sitting a room engaged in a shouting match. Many may not enjoy the cerebral nature of some of its discussions and the glaring absence of songs and dances in this offering. There surely must be a time and place for everything.
What really happened to Sashtri in Tashkent remains shrouded in mystery till today. Perhaps there was a concerted effort to keep his legacy in the shadows. A well-liked leader, an honest, conscientious, decisive leader who preaches peace with his neighbours is no good for creating a despotic regime. Both Pakistan and India resolve their differences - unthinkable! Maybe that is why he had to be terminated to be replaced by a subservient servant of the Cabal!
https://www.dailyo.in/politics/lal-bahadur-shastri-tashkent-kgb-russia-rti-congress-pmo-mea-tn-kaul/story/1/8393.html
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/inothernews/lal-bahadur-shastri-conspiracy/#.h1gnlbwq6
https://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/2008-October/000400.html
https://mitrokhinarchiveii.blogspot.com/
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