Alleged Political Murder Remains Unsolved after 35 Years

Shree Lalit Narayan Mishra was railway minister of India from 1973 to 1975 who died in 1975 in a bomb blast. After all these years the probe in his death still remains unresolved. Since he was one year senior to me in Patna College (Patna University) where both of us were completing our Masters in Economics, I knew him reasonably well. We had both taken part in active students' politics as Congress workers. He was much more active and had decided to take part in politics while I had made up my mind to be a professor under the inspiration of Dr. Gyanchand, a leading Indian economist of the time, well known for his book 'Teemimg Millions in India.'
Lalit, as we knew him,graduated in 1948 and joined actively the Indian National Congress party and became a member of the Lok Sabha and remained so for two terms. He, over time, held several other posts in the party and the government. He became Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Labour and Employment in 1957, Deputy Minister for Home affairs in 1964, Deputy Finance Minister in1966, Minister of State for Defence Production in 1967. He was Minister of Foreign Trade between 1970 and 1973. In 1973 he became the Cabinet Minister of Railways in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's cabinet. Mrs. Gandhi , to the best of my knowledge, liked him. He also acted as one of the main fund raisers for the Congress.
In his capacity as the Minister for railways, he visited Samastipur on 2 January 1975 to inaugurate the opening of Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad gauge railway line. He was seriously injured by a granade thrown on the dais. If I remember correctly, another friend of mine, a senior member of the Indian Police Service also died because of the blast. After all these years, I have failed to understand why a seriously injured VIP was taken to Danapore (quite a distance from Samstipore), a relatively deprived railway town with a poorly equipped railway hospital. One must be reminded that only 30 minute away from Samastipore, there is a long-standing Medical College with Post-Graduate teaching facilities and a large hospital. Many of the students who graduated from that college work in hospitals in the UK and elsewhere. I have discussed this with my younger brother, now a Retired Professor of Surgery in the Medical College and he cannot see any sense in taking Lalit to Danapur. Strangely enough, there is another Medical College in Patna as well. Before going to Danapore one has to pass through Patna.Lalit should have been taken to Darbhanga Medical College hospital where there were several reputed surgeons in addition to my brother. Darbhanga Medical College attracts students and patients even from Nepal. After all these years of reasonably dispassionate thinking I have not come to a conclusion. I am not yet sure whether this was a botched decision-making or a pre-meditated politically conspired murder.
It could be, as I say a botched up policy decision, but conspiracy theorists would see it,--in fact the younger brother of Lalit, who became one of Bihar;'s chief ministers considers it--v as a politically motivated murder. It was the time that the Congress was in total disarray; it was the same year that Mrs. Gandhi had declared a national emergency and had become a virtual dictator. Lalit , as a fund-raiser for the Congress must have had some access to secret sources of funding for the Party. It is conceivable that some one did not want such secrets to be known publicly. But who? The question remains unanswered after all these years. I generally, do not believe in conspiracy theories; and am prepared to accept a verdict which might suggest a 'botched up' decision-making under panic conditions but I find it a travesty of justice that the mystery remains unsolved after all these years. It is not only a sad commentary on the condition of the judicial system in India but a shadow on the ruling party, if it cannot get the mystery of the death of an important minister in the Central cabinet cleared and culprits brought to justice, what chances are there for an ordinary Indian citizen to obtain justice in India. I beg the in-coming Chief Minister of Bihar to take up the matter seriously and get it resolved.

For more details about Mr. L.N. Mishra please see Wikepedia.