Lal Bahadur Shastri’s son refuses to compare his father with PM Modi

“My father always wore khadi dhoti and kurta, while the present PM loves wearing ₹10 lakh suit,” senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Anil Shastri said this while refusing to compare his father with current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In an interaction with journalists in Bhopal, the former union minister was asked as to who was a better PM, his illustrious father or the present PM, to which he said “I don’t want to make any comparisons between the two leaders, because lauding Shastriji would always make people feel that I’m heaping praise on his exalted persona as he was my father.”

However, while recounting an incident dating back to the early 1960s, “When my father became the PM, we requested him to buy a car, after which he bought a car by taking Rs 5000 loan from the Punjab National Bank. However, a few months later he died, leaving the loan unpaid.”

“The loan taken by my father as the PM, however, didn’t remain unpaid. My mother Lalita Shastri repaid the loan out of the pension she received. But in the present NDA era, a businessman named Nirav Modi has managed to escape the country without repaying the Rs 11,000 crore loans taken from the same PNB.”

While remembering another incident, Shashtri said, “When my father became the PM, I was just 15 years old. When he came back to the PM residence after taking the oath, I requested him to have a carpet in his bedroom. But he responded to me in his signature manner saying that I’m the PM of a country, where countless people don’t have their own roof to live. You should be happy that your father and family at least have a spacious house to live in, if I allow a carpet in my bedroom, I won’t be able to sleep.”

Image Source – The Week