History, politics, mystery, transparency
Anuj Dhar is known for his research and activism relating to Subhas Chandra Bose, especially the issue of his mysterious disappearance. Dhar's 2012 bestselling book "India's biggest Cover-up" triggered the movement for declassification of the Netaji files and inspired Alt Balaji's hit web series "Bose: Dead/Alive". In 2018, Dhar wrote "Your Prime Minister is Dead", which is the first-ever comprehensive study of the enduring Lal Bahadur Shastri death mystery. Dhar provided inputs for Vivek Agnihotri's film "The Tashkent Files". In 2019, Dhar came out with "Conundrum: Subhas Bose's life after death", co-authored by Chandrachur Ghose. Both played a pivotal role in the making of hit Bengali movie "Gumnaami" -- which won a national award. Dhar has given talks across India and in the US; and in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK.
Topic
Anuj Dhar on "Your Prime Minister is Dead: Revisit the case of Lal Bahadur Shastri"
On 28th Nov 05.00 pm - 06:40 pm
“After 52 years, the mysterious death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri has once again come to the limelight with questions being raised as to why his body was not forensically examined. The book “ Your Prime Minister is Dead” points towards the strong possibility of poisoning, the Chief Information Commissioner directed the CPIOs on the plea of an RTI applicant that all classified documents pertaining to Shastri’s death should be placed before the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to take a call on their declassification. Since no post-mortem was conducted neither in India nor in Soviet Russia, true reason can’t be concluded. The chance to resolve this mystery was lost. Today, all that is there are pictures of Shastri’s body taken in Tashkent and then in Delhi, details of the embalming process performed by senior Soviet doctors and accounts of those who observed the body in Delhi. This book tries to unravel the mystery, supplies this information to some forensic pathologists and other experts, inquiring whether the condition of Shastri’s body as seen in the pictures and described by the family members, was consistent with the official description of his death and the subsequent embalming process.”