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Inder Kumar Gujral was India's prime
minister for a brief 11 months in 1997-98. But the mild-mannered,
soft-spoken politician, whose personality flew against the
political archetype, will be remembered primarily for his keen
interest in protecting and promoting India's external interests
and the eponymous Gujral Doctrine - his mantra for India's
neighbourhood policy when he was external affairs minister twice
in a decade.
The quintessential Congress member who later left the party to
join the Janata Dal after differences with former prime minister
Indira Gandhi over her autocratic ways, Gujral died, at the age of
93, as quietly and gracefully as he had exited the political stage
two decades ago.
In a way reflective of the man, who came to Delhi from Pakistan in
the traumatic post-partition period, the Gujral Doctrine advocated
magnamity towards small neighbours in the interest of regional
peace and progress.
"The logic behind the Gujral Doctrine was that since we had to
face two hostile neighbours in the north and the west, we had to
be at 'total peace' with all other immediate neighbours in order
to contain Pakistan's and China's influence in the region," said
Gujral in his autobiography "Matters of Discretion".
Derided as a weak and conciliatory policy at the time when
reciprocity was still the ruling mantra at South Block, the
principle was nevertheless carried forward by successive
governments. It helped change mindsets and improved India's ties
with its neighbours through the years.
Gujral said: "When I finally demitted office (as prime minister)
in March 1998, I had the satisfaction that India's relations with
all its neighbours were not only very healthy but also, to a large
extent, the elements of mistrust and suspicion had evaporated."
Gujral headed the external affairs ministry through two crucial
periods (1989-90 and 1996-97) under first prime minister V.P Singh
and then H.D. Deve Gowda. He helped steer India through the crises
of the early 1990s, when India was making the difficult adjustment
to the end of the Soviet Union, and the oil shock administered by
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait (both important oil suppliers to India).
The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was being negotiated
during his second term and his period as prime minister. Despite
strong international pressure, India refused to sign the unequal
treaty as banning future tests would have closed India's nuclear
option.
The invasion of Kuwait not only disrupted India's oil supplies
but, more importantly, left almost 200,000 Indians stranded in the
region. Gujral flew to Moscow, Washington and Baghdad and obtained
assurances on oil supplies from Moscow. In Baghdad he was greeted
by Iraqi president Saddam Hussain with a hug. Gujral was pilloried
by the Western and sections of the Indian media for that but the
visit ensured that the Indians stranded in Baghdad and Kuwait were
allowed to be evacuated when "others were being held as guests".
Gujral, whose prime ministerial stint in 1997-98 included three
months as interim prime minister, was described by many as a
"gentleman politician". His elevation to the prime minister's post
came when he emerged as the consensus candidate of the fractious
United Front after Sitaram Kesri, then party president, withdrew
Congress support to the H.D. Deve Gowda government.
Just eight months later, the Congress demanded that the DMK
ministers be dropped over allegations against the DMK in the Jain
Commission Report on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Gujral
stood his ground and instead tendered his resignation leading to
elections.
Gujral revealed in his autobiography that in the general elections
after the first NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee fell by
just one vote in parliament, Congress president Sonia Gandhi
offered him a Congress nomination for the polls.
"In case, I did not wish to contest, she told me that she would
back my entry to the Rajya Sabha. However, I decided that having
held the position of the prime minister of India, I must refrain
from switching parties and call it a day gracefully."
Inder Gujral was born Dec 4, 1919 in the town of Jhelum on the
banks of the river of the same name, now in Pakistan. His parents
were freedom fighters and members of the Congress but Gujral was
drawn to the students wing of the Communist Party of India.
He was sent to Lahore Borastal Jail for organising a
demonstration.
He met his wife Sheila when they were both students at Forman
Christian College and he was pursuing a master's degree in
economics. They were married in May 1945 and had two sons and a
daughter. A well known poet and social worker, Sheila Gujral died
on July 11, 2011.
Gujral came to Delhi after the 1947 partition and got involved in
local politics, becoming closer to the Congress. He was nominated
vice president of the New Delhi Municipal Council in 1958.
In 1964 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha with Indira Gandhi's
backing. Three years later, in 1967, she made him minister of
state for parliamentary affairs and communications. He became a
part of Indira Gandhi's 'kitchen cabinet' together with
Congressmen like Dinesh Singh and Uma Shankar Dixit.
When Emergency was imposed in 1975, he was the information and
broadcasting minister. But he soon fell foul of Sanjay Gandhi and
was relegated to the planning ministry. When his Rajya Sabha term
ended a year later, Indira Gandhi sent him to Moscow as India's
ambassador (1976-80) "since he refused to bow down to the de facto
powers (read Sanjay Gandhi)".
He left the Congress after his stint in Moscow, later joining the
anti-Congress Janata Dal. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the
first time in 1989 from Jalandhar in Punjab, re-elected in 1998
when he was interim prime minister but he decided not to contest
the 1999 elections, choosing to retire from electoral politics.
Talking about his brief prime ministerial stint, Gujrat said:
"...my main task had been to ward off attacks from various
factional leaders so that I could keep my chin up. But I really
did not feel a sense of achievement that I did during my tenure as
minister of external affairs."
He spent his last decade writing and speaking largely on foreign
policy issues and was much sought after in intellectual and
academic circles.
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