Foreign Relations

Shastri made no basic changes in the policy of non-alignment. However, he was deeply conscious that, in the wake of India’s war with China (1962) and the growth of military ties between Pakistan and the People’s Republic of China, the Indian government should increase the defence budget of the country. So he tried to modernise the armed forces of India. He also decided that India should build closer ties with the Soviet Union.

He made overtures to neighbouring states to solve outstanding problems. The Bandarnaike-Shastri accord of 1964 between India and Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then called) was signed by Lal Bahadur Shastri and his Ceylonese counterpart, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Concerned with the status of Indian Tamils in Ceylon, the pact settled for the repatriation of 6,00,000 Indian Tamils to India and Ceylonese citizenship to be granted to 3,75, 000 Tamils in Ceylon – to be accomplished by 1981. Shastri, however, died soon after, and the accord was not fulfilled, and some years later India considered the agreement to have lapsed.

Burma had undergone a military coup in 1962, and following that many Indian families settled there had been repatriated by the Burmese government in 1964. Relations between India and Burma were strained. However, Shastri made an official visit to Rangoon in December 1965, and cordial relations were again established between India and the Burmese government under General Ne Win.

Considering the situation in the subcontinent and the disturbed relations with Pakistan and China, Lal Bahadur Shastri did not hesitate to initiate a nuclear explosives programme. In 1965, he gave authorisation to the Atomic Energy Commission to work on achieving a nuclear test. He faced strong opposition on this issue from his own government and party as well as others, but he did not waver. Unfortunately, Lal Bahadur Shastri died in January 1966 as did the prominent personality on the nuclear science programme in India, Homi

J. Bhabha, before the programme could proceed.