Mangalore: Many know Gandhiji, but few remember Lal Bahadur Shastri, who moved worth Jawaharlal Nehru in his Congress freedom movement days. The remarkable thing is that both Gandhi and Shastri were born on 2nd October and they share the 3rd national day of India, today, which is declared a public holiday.
While Gandhi was an apostle of non-violence, Lal Bahadur Srivastava (Shastri) was a Kshatriya and did not fear Pakistan. He led war as PM against Pakistan for 20 days in Sept 1965. Both were householders with a wife and children. While Kasturba died before Gandhi in Pune, Lalitha Shastri  passed away after Shastri’s demise in January 1966 at Tashkent and lived on Janpath. There is a musewon on Shastriji on Janpath where he resided as PM Gandhi has several memorials at Rajghat, Birla House and Parliament House, as the Father of the Nation of Bharat or India.
Lal Bahadur had a connection with Mangalore through U. Srinivasa Mallya, MP who was his good friend and promoted many new activities in and around Mangalore, such as Panambur Port, Bajpe Airport and Surathkal Engineering College (now NIT –K). On May 29, 1955 Lal Bahdur Shastri came to our port city for inauguration of NH 17 with US Mallya in tow. Both Gandhi and Shastri had great regard for Mangalore which reminded them of Kamaladevi Chattopadhya who promoted Khadi and village Industries, and Karnad Sadashiva Rao, a mighty social worker who gave away all his earnings in service of coastal people, besides U.S. Mallya and U.R. Mallya (brothers).
In Kankanady Bydarkala Garodi, Gandhi is worshipped in an image form to this day Tuluvas, for which there is no other similar specimen anywhere in India.
Shastri lived a daring life under utter poverty and died a martyr after Indo-Pak war of Sept 1965 in Jan, 1966. He had been awarded a long sword by Sikhs of Punjab during the 20 day war, which had to be stopped suddenly for peace initiatives. He remains a pole star among Congress leaders all over India.
Both of them will continue to inspire Indians in war and peace, truth and non-violence, a dedicated life under clean habits without corruption.