In 1945 Shastri was released from jail as were other leaders. A busy time was in the offing. The Congress required to be reorganised. Provincial Council elections were announced which were to be fought on party basis. The British had decided to grant India freedom.
The country was to be divided in two parts.
Pundit Govind Ballabh Pant was the Congress Supremo in U.P. Uttar Pradesh was then called United Provinces. Pant drafted Lal Bahadur Shastri to reorganise the party and prepare it for forthcoming polls. He had realised the worth of Lal Bahadur. Shastri was required to move to Lucknow, the capital of the state. The family had no objection as he was now to get handsome salary.
Lal Bahadur Shastri did his job splendidly. The Congress party won thumping majority in the state. Govind Bhallabh Pant became the Chief Minister who appointed Lal Bahadur Shastri as his Parliamentary Secretary.
The standard of living of the Shastri family improved. Now the children had relatively better clothes to wear and better food to eat.
Then things moved fast. India gained independence on 15th August, 1947 after Pakistan was carved out of it inspite of the protest of Gandhiji. Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru assumed office as the first Prime Minister of Independent India. Some prominent leaders from UP were drafted into the central cabinet leaving some gaps in UP ministry. The Chief Minister appointed Lal Bahadur Shastri as Minister of Police and Transport.
Shastri introduced some innovative changes in the departments under his charge. He made police force more disciplined and answerable to the people. He nationalised the road transport in UP and women conductors were introduced in buses. Freedom fighters who were not overage were inducted in the police force. To control the unruly mobs water jets were to be used instead of lathis.
Inspite of becoming a minister Shastri continued his simple ways of life.
Once as the Police Minister he travelled by a train like an ordinary passenger without the usual paraphernalia. At the railway station he peered out of the window and saw a large police force, a crowd of party workers and citizens with garlands. He got down unnoticed and hired a porter to carry his bedroll and trunk.
The two proceeded towards the exit gate.
Shastri asked, “Why is this crowd here?”
The porter informed, “They say the Police Minister is arriving. They are all here to welcome him.”
Shastri smiled. At the exit gate a policeman stopped them by saying, “Stand by! No one is allowed to leave until the Minister is escorted out.” Lal Bahadur said noting and stood aside meekly. Suddenly someone recognised Shastri and shouted to the policeman, “The man you stopped is the Police Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.”
The policeman stared at Shastri incredulously. By now others too had recognised him and rushed to him to apologize for the confusion. The police officers were red faced and utterly embarrassed.
Once an old friend visited Shastri’s house. He was shocked to see the same old simplicity, spartan life style, faded bedsheets and few items of furniture. His life had not changed much. Food he was served consisted of curry and paranthas cooked by a party worker of boyish type who was on a visit to the city. Lalita was not in the city.
It was revealed to the friend that Lalita still cooked food for the family as the Police Minister could not afford a cook.
Many a time he took recourse to humour to mollify others. Once he was present in Kanpur Cricket stadium to watch a cricket match being played between the India and Commonwealth team. He was a cricket enthusiast. During the match trouble broke out in the spectator stands when some boys tried to misbehave with the girls. The police intervened and a scuffle took place between policemen and the boys. The police used force and dealt some blows.
The youngmen demonstrated against the police. The police forces then wore red turbans and the people called them ‘Red Turbans’ in derogatory sense. The agitators demanded that no ‘Red Turbans’ should be present in the stadium. Lal Bahadur mollified them by promising that in future they won’t see Red Turbans in the stadiums.
The next day, the police still was present in the stadium in large numbers. The youngmen protested and reminded Lal Bahadur Shastri of his promise. Lal Bahadur countered, “I promised no red turbans in the stadium and you can’t see any. I kept my promise. The police has been ordered to wear Khaki turbans.”
The youngmen were stumped and they looked sheepish. The people laughed at them. It had become clear that the little man had big sense of humour.
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