Word: shastri
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...chosen last week to command one-seventh of the world's people has a turkey neck, a smudgy mustache, and an expression of ineffable meekness. It is a little misleading, insists Lal Bahadur Shastri, the new Prime Minister of India. "I am not as simple as I look...
Nothing is simple in India, including Shastri's unanimous election. He was the clear choice of the country's three kingmakers, 1) Congress Party President Kamaraj Nadar, who controls four south Indian states, 2) Atulya Ghosh, boss of eastern India, and 3) Bombay's S. K. Patil, who personally directs some 100 of the 537 Congress Party M.P.s. All three closed ranks behind Shastri as the man most capable of bringing "unity" to the nation. And all three opposed the only other candidate, conservative, autocratic Morarji Desai, the former Finance Minister, who was supported by rightists, leftists...
Typically, Shastri had stayed aloof from all the politicking. Next morning, he rose early, had a modest breakfast with his family. He was the last to reach Parliament, where the other Congress Party members were already gathered beneath the high dome of the central hall. In a soft, reedy voice, tiny (5 ft., 112 lbs.) Shastri promised to carry on Nehru's work. Then he drove to the Jumna River to pray at the site where Nehru had been cremated...
...Rudolph pointed out that Shastri has the support of Kamraj Nadar, the first strong, independent president of the Congress party in years. "Nadar should be able to insure Shastri the necessary votes within the parliamentary party," Rudolph said...
...Shastri himself "is by no means as conversant with international affairs as Nebru," said Rudolph, "and he can be expected to follow the main lines of Nehru's policies: friendliness with both Russia and the United States, and strong preparedness against China...