An Insight on Sunil Shastri – A Leader of Next Genere

Download Profile of Shri Sunil Shastri

India today is being applauded as an emerging player on the global stage. The other power that has also been drawing much attention is its massive northern neighbor, China. Yet by one vital criterion, India finds itself in a clearly more advantageous position than the dragon: it is the youth component of the country’s population. While China’s demographics are headed for a grey workforce that it will have in the coming decades, its southern peninsular neighbor will be a world teeming with an energetic population a formidable percentage of which is now I the age bracket of 18-35 years.

It is acknowledged universally that youth power as a national asset resource stands out among all others. And a radiant example of refining this great Indian resource is the Shastri Institute of Learning (SIL) in Jaipur, seeking to tap it as a strategy against the ills bedeviling this country. Set up by the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Foundation (LBSMF) under the chairmanship of Sunil Shastri, 60, son of our late, beloved second Prime Minister, the institute aspires to be a world class center for higher studies. The SIL helmsman, who espouses higher education as an instrument of bringing about social change, believes in empowering our youth for a mass movement to fight corruption at all levels, uplift the underprivileged and generally free society from its age-old shackles. A dedicated legacy of his revered father who worked tirelessly for the welfare of the rural masses, Sunil Shastri declares, “Youth are my torch bearers to whom I would like to pass on my father’s teachings and values for betterment of the nation.

To say the least, his have been extraordinary life and a career notable for leadership qualities. Inclined to social service and a leadership role from early on, Sunil Shastri left his banker’s job to join active politics in 1980. In June of that year, he was elected to the UP Assembly from the Gorakhpur constituency, to be followed by his re-election in 1985. He first became Deputy Minister of Energy, General Administration and Public Enterprises, then went on to assume independent charge of the power portfolio as a Minister. While heading the Department of Labour, Traning & Employment in 1982, he was instrumental in bringing down the number of strikes and lockouts in the state, thus curtailing the loss of its valuable man-days.

His tenure as a Cabinet Minister (Energy) in 1985-87 saw a distinct rise in the plant load factor (PLF) of the power houses in UP. As a Congress candidate in 1988, he was pitted against V P Singh, on the one hand, and Kanshi Ram of the Bahujan Samaj Party, on the other, from the Allahabad Parliamentary constituency. The next year, Sunil Shastri was re-inducted as a State Cabinet Minister, to assume charge of Heavy Industries, Industrial Finance & Public Enterprises. In 1990, he became chairman of the Minimum Wages Advisory Board, Government of India, for three years. Then, nominated as the joint secretary of the All-India Congress Committee in 1995, he oversaw party affairs in Gujrat, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagra Haveli, Kerala, Orissa and West Bengal.

The period from January 1998 to December 2004 marked a new phase in his political career when he was associated with the BJP led by stalwart Atal Behari Bajpayee as the Prime Minister. In 1999, he was nominated as a member of the second National Commission on Labour. During his association with the BJP, he was entrusted with overall coordination of the Media, publicity, publications and Parliamentary affairs and also served as the party spokesperson.

But the landmark moment in his life came when after his resignation from the BJP, Sunil Shastri launched Jai Jawan Jai Kissan Mazdoor Congress on 10 Dec, 2004, having decided to strike out on his own as a political leader commited to the ideals of Lal Bhadur Shastri. Registered with the Election Commission, it has a labour wing called Jai Mazdoor Forum, with its aim to consolidate the labour front here, to which are affiliated sister outfits from around the country.

Through the political outfit he traveled through out the country primarily in the rural area to strengthen the unorganized labour force and give an impetence to the Kissan and Jawan (youth). After putting in five years of service then he decided in the layer of interest of the rural population to join the main stream of politics and he joined Indian National Congress.

Indeed, multifarious are the activities of Sunil Shastri’s leadersip ranging from rural development and educational promotion to community care and charity to uplift of women and facilitation of true democracy. He is closely involved, as chairman, with the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Foundation which is a vehicle designed to usher in all round change in society and involves people from varied backgrounds such as social and judicial activists and retired administrators as well as NGOs. One major task the foundation has accomplished is the establishment of local educational institutions such as the Institute of Learning, a High School at Bijnor in UP, Institute of learning in Jaipur (Management College, PGDM recognized by AICTE GOI HRD).

He also heads Lal Bahadur Shastri Sewa Niketan which is focused on community development, with branches at Manda in UP, Panipat in Hariyana and other places. As chairman of the Lal Bhadur Shastri Institute of Management & Development Studies, Lucknow, he has guided it over the past decade and a half, establishing it as a center for management training that offer both regular and distance learning courses. He is on the governing boards of a number of academic and social institutions, including Jaipur’s Lal Bahadur Shastri College that has as many as 4000 students on its rolls. A man who has always valued social leadership as an individual, Sunil Shastri is involved with Rotary Club, Rotary and Leo Club, and is also associated with the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chennai, in an honorary capacity.And his espousal of youth power and women’s causes is underlined by his close ties with student and women’s organizations around the country as chairman, founder or founder-member.

Yet, of all the roles in which he has been involved, his campaign for True Democracy under the banner of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Foundation is a special one. This initiative of his has brought together over a hundred NGOs, political leaders, jurists, bureaucrats, educationist, economists and community leaders through such interactions as all-India seminars.

A globally-travelled leader, Sunil Shastri first went abroad in 1965 when he accompanied his Prime Minister father, Lal Bahadur Shastri, on a visit to Burma (now Myanmar). Three years later, he traveled to Tashkent in the USSR in connection with the installation of a commemorative statue of the late Indian leader there. His travels have taken him to numerous countries-Britain, Belgium, West Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France in Europe; Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hongkong, Singapore, Nepal and Bangladesh in Asia; and South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya in Africa. His visits overseas related to a variety of purposes, from a study of banking for small-scale and heavy industries, inauguration of a management institute course and attendance at a conference of a political party to taking a first-hand look at power generation, distribution and transmission and study of all-round nation development.

A creative person, Sunil Shastri is a poet and a writer and has a special interest in musical composition. His book “Lal Bahadur Shastri –Mere Babuji” is a widely-acclaimed publication. It is scheduled for translation into Bengali, Marathi and Tamil. He has also edited “Shradhanjali”, a tribute to his late Prime Minister father detailing aspects of his life and achievements. Closely associated with all three media-print, electronic and wave (AIR)-he has written for both young and old leaders. His chosen subject matter for the latter relates to the socio-economic issues of the nation.

Born in 1950, Sunil Shastri is married and has three sons who are named by him after the three qualities for which Lal Bahadur Shastri was known as a national icon-Vinamra, Vaibhav and Vibhore. He completed schooling from St Columbus, New Delhi, and graduated from Delhi University.           

He is truly a man with a vision to provide the humanity the best of living environment and raise the social issue to well being