Inder Kumar Gujral obit

I.K. Gujral, author of key foreign policy doctrine, dies at 92

 

He was not on the list.

He was Prime Minister for less than a year, and at that by accident: because the other contestants squabbled furiously and pulled each other down. Yet Inder Kumar Gujral left behind a foreign policy legacy so path-breaking that it became the touchstone for the conduct of India’s relations with its immediate neighbours.

The author of the celebrated Gujral Doctrine (a set of five principles based on unilateral accommodation) died here on Friday — at age 92, after a full life and a remarkable career that saw him climb inch by inch to success, from municipal-level politician to minister, diplomat, and finally Prime Minister.

Inder Kumar Gujral (4 December 1919 – 30 November 2012) was an Indian diplomat, politician, and independence activist, who served as prime minister of India from April 1997 to March 1998.

Born in Punjab, he was influenced by politics as a student, and joined the All India Students Federation and the Communist Party of India. He was imprisoned for taking part in the Quit India movement. After independence, he joined the Indian National Congress party in 1964, and became a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha.

He was the Minister of Information and Broadcasting during the emergency. In 1976, he was appointed as the Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union. In 1996, he became the Minister of External Affairs in the Deve Gowda ministry, and developed the Gujral doctrine during this period. He was appointed the prime minister of India in 1997. His tenure lasted for less than a year.

He retired from all political positions in 1998. He died in 2012 at the age of 92, following hospitalization due to a lung infection.

Inder Kumar was born on 4 December 1919 in a Punjabi Hindu Khatri family to Avtar Narain and Pushpa Gujral in the village of Pari Darveza in the Sohawa Tehsil of the Jhelum District in undivided Punjab in British India, which is in present-day Punjab, Pakistan. He studied at D.A.V. College, Hailey College of Commerce and Forman Christian College, Lahore, all affiliated with the University of the Punjab. He was a member of All India Students Federation. He also participated in the Indian independence movement, and was jailed in 1942 during the Quit India Movement. As a student, he became a member of the Communist Party of India. He also has two sisters, Uma Nanda and Sunita Judge. On 26 May 1945, Inder Kumar Gujral married Sheila Gujral (24 January 1924 – 11 July 2011) and had two sons, Naresh Gujral (born 19 May 1948), who is a former Rajya Sabha MP, and Vishal Gujral. IK Gujral's younger brother Satish Gujral was a world-renowned painter and sculptor.