The death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri changed the political picture in India completely. What would have happened if Chavan had staked his claim for the office of the Nation's highest executive in 1966 or later will ever remain a debatable question and is beyond the scope of this article.
Chavan's innings in the Ministry of Defence came to a sudden close in November 1966 when he was moved to the Home Ministry. Some eye-brows had been raised and his credentials questioned when Jawaharlal Nehru asked him to take over the Defence portfolio in 1962. The opposition was much more severe when Indira Gandhi asked him to take over the Home portfolio. Different arguments were given by different people to convince Indira Gandhi and make her change her mind. Chavan was indispensable to defence said some, conveniently forgetting that only three years ago they had scoffed at his being made Defence Minister. Yet some others hinted that because of his strong power base in Maharashtra, the Kannadigas might have doubts about his impartiality in dealing with vexed questions like the Maharashtra-Mysore boundary issue.
Chavan moved to Home Ministry in November 1966, to Finance in 1970 and to External Affairs four years later. He was the only person to hold all the four important portfolios - Defence, Home, Finance and External Affairs at one time or another. But his achievement as Defence Minister which will always be remembered. If 1962 is only a bad dream today, and the Indian people remember 1965 and 1971 with pride in themselves, it is because of the quiet man from Satara who in his own way led the effort for reorganising the defence of the country and breathed self-confidence and pride in the armed forces.