Lal Bahadur Shastri

New Delhi, Oct. 11 (PTI): The Centre has refused to make public purported correspondence with the Indian mission in Moscow over the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, citing possible adverse impact on the “sovereignty and integrity” of the country and international relations.

Three months after saying it does not have any document on the death of the then Prime Minister Shastri in Tashkent in 1966 but the medical report of the attending doctor, the external affairs ministry has also maintained silence over whether any correspondence between India and the erstwhile USSR on the issue exists.

Anuj Dhar, moderator of transparency website www.endthesecrecy.com, in his RTI application has sought the correspondence between the MEA and the Indian embassy in Moscow and between foreign ministries of both the countries, if there was any, after the death of Shastri and asked the government to specify if such correspondence exists.

Dhar also sought the medical report filed by R.N. Chugh, doctor-in-attendance to Shastri, which is public domain as claimed by former Prime Minister’s grandson and BJP spokesperson Siddarth Nath Singh.

The ministry did not say whether such correspondence exists and replied that all the information sought could not be “disclosed under Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act”.

The section exempts disclosure of information, which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of the country, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the state, relation with foreign state or lead to incitement of an offence.

The ministry did not explain the reasons for seeking exemption. An explanation is mandatory according to the directives of the Central Information Commission.

After the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, Shastri had gone to Tashkent in the erstwhile USSR in January 1966 for a summit with the then Pakistan President Ayub Khan. He died under mysterious circumstances, hours after signing the joint declaration.

Singh said any disclosure about the correspondence could “shake some political organisation” if the country comes to know the truth as Shastri was even “more popular” than Nehru. He has plans to take up the issue again with President Pratibha Patil.