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After breakfast, he strolls out to the wide, flower-fringed lawn for his regular hour of darshan (audience) with the favor seekers and admirers that surround any politician. A chauffeur and a single white-clad bodyguard accompany him in a black, Indian-built Hindustan Ambassador sedan to his office in the circular, sandstone Parliament House. Office routine—sometimes 17 hours a day of it—is interrupted only by a vegetarian lunch of curry, potato cutlet and tea (prepared by his wife) and a half-hour nap. A heart attack in 1959 and another seizure last year, shortly after he assumed the premiership, have done little to slow Shas-tri's dogged pace. He is blessed by an old Nehru tradition that saves him wear and tear: Indian Prime Ministers rarely hold diplomatic receptions.
To the dismay of many associates, Shastri's humility is not put on. He stubbornly refuses to do anything that might build up his personal image, even when it could help the country. During last year's food crisis, Shastri decided to forgo rice as a symbol of self-denial. But out of modesty he refused to let the fact be relayed to the rioting people, and the possible impact was lost. Yet many Indians feel that more than self-abnegation is needed to confront grave problems. Says Editor Frank Moraes of the Indian Express: "Leaders have no business being humble."
The Grain Drain. The crises that confront India are grave indeed. First on the list is the perennial problem of providing enough food for a population that is growing at a rate of 3% a year. The cause of last year's food crisis was simple enough: for three straight years, Indian grain production remained static at 80 million tons. Sharp traders from Bombay to Calcutta capitalized on the underproduction by buying up wheat in the fields, then quietly ordering farmers to hold their crops for future delivery after prices had soared higher. In Shastri's home state, wheat that had been selling for $173.25 per ton doubled in price in a matter of weeks. State bosses then refused to accept Shastri's rationing plan, and India had to double its normal import of grain from abroad —expanding valuable foreign exchange in the process. The U.S. grain supply to India reached 6,650,000 tons — two shiploads a day — and saved the country from sheer starvation.
In perhaps his strongest move since assuming power, Shastri ordered a cut back in the grandiose industrial scheme laid out by Nehru, snatched away the styluses from New Delhi's army of blue printing planners, and cranked up a crash program of agricultural aid. Though industrial projects already un der way ($5 billion worth of them) will be allowed to reach completion, the heavier effort for the next few years will go into quick-yielding small projects for farmers — wells, irrigation and roads. This year's harvest gives him a breather: 87,200,000 tons of grain have been cut and winnowed.