It was around 10 p.m. on June 9, 1964, that C. Subramaniam, a Congress veteran from Tamil Nadu, popularly known as CS, received a call from Lal Bahadur Shastri, who had just taken over as the Prime Minister following the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in late May. He wanted Subramaniam, who held the plum portfolios of Steel, Mines and Heavy Engineering in the Nehru Cabinet, to look after the “less glamorous” subjects of Agriculture and Food.
As recounted in the second volume of his memoirs, Hand of Destiny, Subramaniam was “a little taken aback” as he considered himself a successful Steel Minister.
But the problem Shastri faced was that he could find no one else in his Cabinet willing to accept Agriculture, which was even regarded as the “political graveyard”. Events that followed this development justified Shastri’s selection and proved how eminently qualified Subramaniam was in handling the two crucial subjects, especially at a time when the country went through a spell of acute food shortage.
