PM Nehru Dies, Grief and Shock Shroud Country

HT's Report on Sudden Demise of Sitting PM Nehru and the Outpouring of Grief it Sparked

- HT Correspondent

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru is dead. His life ebbed away a little before 2 pm. He had been unconscious since early in the morning. At about 6.30 am Mr. Nehru suffered a heart attack combined with what the doctors described as a "shock".

The news of his death plunged the country into deep gloom, the likes of which it had not experienced since Mahatma Gandhi's assassination 16 years before. In Parliament, members looked dazed as they heard the sad news.

Besides his grief-stricken daughter Mrs. Indira Gandhi, those present by his bedside at the time of his death were Mr. Gulzarilal Nanda, Mr. T.T. Krishnamachari and Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri, President Radhakrishnan and Vice-President Zakir Hussain joined them as soon as they heard the news. Most of them stood sadly around his room since early morning when it became known that he was gravely ill.

The shock caused by his death was all the greater because those who had seen him only yesterday on his return from Dehradun had found him cheerful and in apparent good health.