- His death under extremely suspicious circumstances at Tashkent, Uzbekistan SSR, led to conspiracy theories that he was poisoned.
- Shared his birthday with his mentor from the Indian Independence Movement Mohandas K. Gandhi. Although Shastri was 35 years Gandhi's junior.
- Prime Minister of India, from 9th June, 1964 till his mysterious demise on 11th January, 1966. Prior to being appointed as Prime Minister and Jawaharlal Nehru's successor, he was the Minister of Home Affairs in Nehru's cabinet from April 1961 till August 1963.
- Ace fighter pilot and Chief of Indian Air Force Staff during the 1965 conflict Marshall Arjan Singh considered Shastri as the best wartime Prime Minister India ever had.
- Had invited former Finance Minister Morarji Desai to take over the portfolio again, stating he needed someone with the authority and prestige to begin with scaling down on tariffs for consumer industries. Desai, feeling bitter about losing out to Shastri for the Prime Minister's post, declined outright.
- First individual to be posthumously awarded India's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna at the Republic Day of 1966. Shastri was bestowed with the title due to his astute leadership during the India-Pakistan War from April till September of 1965 and his economic policies which led to the Green Revolution and the White Revolution across the country.
- Despite his tenure lasting only 19 months, he's widely considered alongside Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PV Narasimha Rao as the best Prime Minister of independent India.
- In sharp contrast to his predecessor who had a highly antagonistic accord with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Shastri had the Hindutva ideologue's freedom fighter pension restored within months of taking oath as Prime Minister.
- The international airport of Varanasi in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is named after him.
- Although he built stronger ties with the Soviet Union and inducted Soviet military hardware into the Indian forces, Shastri was a life long anti-communist. He explained that the move to forge ties with the communist superpower was in response to Pakistan making an alliance with the Chinese People's Republic in the aftermath of India's defeat in the 1962 Indo-China War.
- Was anticipating fellow independence activist and veteran Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan to come out of retirement and take over as Prime Minister in the event of Nehru's demise. But in an interview with journalist Kuldeep Nayyar, he also stated that Nehru might have his daughter Indira Gandhi in mind as successor. Shastri appointed Gandhi as Minister for Information and Broadcast in his cabinet.
- In an interview with veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayyar, he stated that if he would complete a 5-year term as Prime Minister in his lifetime, Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan would succeed him as the premier but also feared that if he didn't live to complete his term, Indira Gandhi might succeed him.
- Had an intense dislike for Nehru's closest confidant VK Krishna Menon, and the feeling was mutual.
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