Lal Bahadur Shastri, India's second Prime Minister, dies in strange circumstances at the age of 61 in 1966.
Shastriji died on January 11, 1966, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (then the Soviet Union), one day after signing a peace accord ending the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War. Many of Shastri's fans and close relatives refused to believe the circumstances of his death at the time, and have refused to believe them afterwards. Within hours of his death, conspiracy theories arose, and they have remained ever then. He was hailed as a national hero, and the Vijay Ghat memorial was named for him. Following Shastri's death, Gulzarilal Nanda was re-elected as Acting Prime Minister until Indira Gandhi was voted over Morarji Desai by the Congress Parliamentary Party to officially succeed him.
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