Prime Minister
Inder Kumar Gujral took which position from May 1997 to Mar 1998?
Inder Kumar Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral ( 4 December 1919 – 30 November 2012 ) was an Indian diplomat , politician and freedom activist who served as the 12th Prime Minister of India from April 1997 to March 1998 . Born in Punjab , he was influenced by nationalistic ideas 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 as the 12th 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 . Early and personal life . Family . Indra Kumar Gujral 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 Rajya Sabha MP , and Vishal Gujral . IK Gujrals younger brother Satish Gujral was a world-renowned painter and sculptor . Education . Gujrals hobbies included poetry ; he spoke Urdu and was , after his death , eulogised as a lover of the language by Maulana Azad National Urdu University , an institution where he held the position of chancellor . His wife Sheila Gujral , an acclaimed poet , died on 11 July 2011 after an illness . The couple had two sons , Naresh , who is a Shiromani Akali Dal MP in the Rajya Sabha , and Vishal . The couple also have two granddaughters and a grandson . Early politics . Gujral became vice-president of the New Delhi Municipal Committee in 1958 , and joined the Congress party ( INC ) in 1964 . He was close to Indira Gandhi , and became a member of the Rajya Sabha in April 1964 . During the Emergency of June 1975 , Gujral was Minister of Information and Broadcasting , where he was in charge of the media during a time of censorship in India and was in charge of Doordarshan . He again was selected to the Rajya Sabha to serve until 1976 . He also served as Water Resources Minister . Later , Gujral was appointed Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union by Indira Gandhi and stayed on during the tenures of Morarji Desai and Charan Singh . He was rumoured to have been shunted out of the ministry due to conflicts with the prime ministers son , Sanjay Gandhi , over media censorship , and was replaced by Vidya Charan Shukla , who had no qualms following party lines on the matter ; he was then moved to the Planning Ministry . Janata Dal . Gujral resigned from the Indian National Congress party in the 1980s . Then he joined the Janata Dal . In the 1989 Indian general election , Gujral was elected from Jalandhar in Punjab . He served as Minister of External Affairs in Prime Minister V . P . Singhs eleventh cabinet of India . In 1989 , Singh sent him to Srinagar to negotiate with the perpetrators of the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed . He also brought about controversy during the Gulf War when he hugged Saddam Hussein as a show-of-good-faith to ensure Indian expatriates would be safe . In the 1991 Indian general election , Gujral contested from Patna in Bihar . However , the election was countermanded following complaints of irregularities . In 1992 , Gujral was selected to the Rajya Sabha with the help of Lalu Prasad Yadav . Subsequent to the 1996 election , when the United Front government was formed under the premiership of H . D . Deve Gowda , Gujral was again named Minister of External Affairs . During this tenure , he developed the Gujral Doctrine which emphasised better relations with Indias neighbours and was refined when he became prime minister . He also served as Union Minister or Minister of State of several other portfolios—Communications and Parliamentary Affairs , Information and Broadcasting , Works and Housing and Planning . The Indian National Congress party had been supporting the United Front government from outside , but citing its wish to have the incumbent prime minister replaced , decided to withdraw support ; this led to the governments collapse in April 1997 . To avoid mid-term elections , a compromise was reached : the INC agreed to support another United Front government under a new leader , provided its concerns—such as not being consulted before taking important decisions and being marginalised—were addressed . The United Front elected Gujral as its new leader , and he was sworn in as Prime Minister on 21 April 1997 . Prime Minister ( 1997–1998 ) . Gujral became prime minister as the consensus candidate between others that included Lalu Prasad Yadav , Mulayam Singh Yadav ; his government was supported by the INC from outside . In the early weeks of his tenure , the Central Bureau of Investigation asked for permission from the Governor of Bihar , A . R . Kidwai , to prosecute the state Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in a corruption case related to the Fodder Scam , a move that Kidwai sanctioned . Even legal scholars said that Yadav could not escape prosecution . Subsequently , the demand for the resignation of Yadav was raised both from within and outside the United Front . United Front and Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu and Communist Party of India ( Marxist ) General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet called for action against Yadav and for the resignation of other RJD members ; while the same was said by JD members Sharad Yadav , H . D . Deve Gowda and Ram Vilas Paswan who called for the dismissal of accused RJD members Kanti Singh , Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Captain Jai Narain Nishad . Though INC chairperson Sitaram Kesri offered minor calls for Yadavs resignation , Yadav then offered Gujral support to run from any Lok Sabha constituency in Bihar to get his support . Gujral , however , was silent on the matter , but later controversially transferred the CBI director Joginder Singh , who was investigating the case against Yadav , and replaced him with R . C . Sharma , who said Gujral would directly control the CBI and that the pace of investigating many sensational cases will definitely slacken now . However , Yadav was still expelled from the party by JD leader Sharad Yadav , before forming his own Rashtriya Janata Dal in 1997 . Another controversial decision of his government was its recommendation of Presidents rule in Uttar Pradesh in 1997 . The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) Uttar Pradesh government , headed by Kalyan Singh , sought a vote of confidence after violence and unruly scenes took place in the assembly . However , President K.R . Narayanan refused to sign the recommendation and sent it back to the government for reconsideration . The Allahabad High Court also gave a decision against Presidents rule in Uttar Pradesh . He also resisted signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty . On 28 August 1997 , the Jain Commission report was submitted to the government and was leaked on 16 November . The commission had inquired into the conspiracy aspects of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and reportedly criticised the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( DMK ) , amongst others such as the Narasimha Rao government , for tacitly supporting Tamil militants accused in Gandhis assassination . The DMK was part of the ruling coalition at the center and had ministers in the Union Cabinet . The Congress first demanded the tabling of the report on the floor of the parliament , which was refused by Gujral , who feared a battle between the DMK and the Tamil Maanila Congress would lead to the DMKs withdrawal from the government . Gujral later formed a Joint Parliamentary Committee to study the report after informing Sitaram Keshri of the decision , to which Keshri acceded . INC parliamentary party leader Sharad Pawar said they would call for the resignation of anyone implicated in the report . Gujral convened the government to inform them of the updates and said it supported the DMK . The DMKs Industry Minister Murasoli Maran said : We are part of the United Front . We will stand and fall together . I am hundred per cent confident of that . If it were so easy to break the United Front , then it will be called the disunited front . No one is going to ditch their colleagues for a few loaves of power . We have no reason to quit at all . The report is full of recycled news . There is nothing startling about it , everybody already knows what the report is saying . A Madras court is expected to give its verdict on a criminal case on the assassination on January 28 . Let us wait till then to know who was involved in the dastardly act . Until then , all this is disinformation . However , the Tamil Maanila Congress called for the DMK , which was in a coalition government in Tamil Nadu , to share all actions it would undertake . The report was tabled on 20 November 1997 . On the same day there were angry scenes in parliament , as the INC then called for the DMKs removal from the cabinet and refused to partake in any parliamentary debate until that happened . Speaker P.A . Sangma then adjourned the house . The INC finally withdrew support from his government on 28 November after Gujral sent Kesri a letter saying he would not dismiss any DMK leaders . Gujral resigned following the withdrawal , and sent a letter to President K . R . Narayanan that read : My government has lost its majority and does not want to continue in office on moral grounds , but did not call for the dissolution of parliament . The president accepted the resignation , but asked for Gujral to stay on in an interim capacity . INC General Secretary Oscar Fernandes then said : All the secular parties are welcome to support a government which will be attempted by the Congress . The United Fronts leader Chandrababu Naidu got the support of all the constituents saying they would neither support the INC nor the Bharatiya Janata Party , as did the TMC , saying they would not allow a U.P.-like situation to happen in the centre . In similar measure , BJP leader M . Venkaiah Naidu said the party would throttle INC attempts to form a new government . The president then dissolved parliament on 4 December , triggering a snap election . Gujral was the third PM to be from the Rajya Sabha , the first being Indira Gandhi ( January 1966 - March 1977 ) and the second H . D . Deve Gowda ( June 1996 - April 1997 ) and followed by Manmohan Singh ( May 2004 - May 2014 ) . Gujral Doctrine . The Gujral Doctrine is a set of five principles to guide the conduct of foreign relations with Indias immediate neighbours , notably Pakistan , as spelt out by Gujral . The doctrine was later termed as such by journalist Bhabani Sen Gupta in his article , India in the Twenty First Century in International Affairs . These principles are , as he set out at Chatham House in September 1996 ( which he later reiterated at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies ) : He wrote in his autobiography of the doctrine : 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 Pakistans and Chinas influence in the region . Following a series of attacks throughout the 2000s , said by the Indian media and government to have originated from and been planned in Pakistan , culminating with the 2008 Mumbai attacks , the Gujral Doctrine was criticised by the Indian media . Following the attack , India Today said that targeted , covert strikes against Pakistani organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba were a capability that I.K . Gujral dismantled as prime minister over a decade ago will take over a year to rebuild . The major setback of the Gujral Doctrine is said to be the debilitating impact it had on the R&AWs ( Research and Analysis Wing ) ability to conduct operations in Pakistan . On his orders Pakistans special operations desk of R&AW was shut down leading to major gaps in Indias intelligence capabilities . Analysts have time and again blamed this as the foremost factor for Indias intelligence failure before the Kargil War commenced . It is said that this was because of Gujrals negligence towards such repercussions and his urge to leave an imprint on Indo-Pak relations that he did this . However , it was also praised in the media . The snap election was held in February–March 1998 . Gujral contested again from Jalandhar as Janata Dal candidate with the support of the Shiromani Akali Dal . The Akali Dal , though a part of BJP-led coalition , opted to support Gujral because during his Prime Ministerial tenure , Gujral declared that the central government will share the expenses against the insurgency in Punjab during the 1980s and early 1990s , along with the state government of Punjab . Gujral was a member of the Club de Madrid after his tenure as the Prime Minister ended . Illness and death . Gujral was admitted at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon , Haryana ( part of the National Capital Region ) , on 19 November 2012 , after being diagnosed with a lung infection . He had suffered a serious chest infection a few days before being admitted to the hospital following more than a year of dialysis . His health deteriorated in the hospital and was reported to be very critical . On 27 November , he fell unconscious and his urine output system stopped working . Gujral died on 30 November 2012 , four days before his 93rd birthday . His body lay in state at his official residence , 5 Janpath , until noon the next day . The Government of India declared a seven-day period of state mourning and cancelled official functions until 6 December . He was given a state funeral at 15:00 on 1 December near Samata Sthal . His death was announced to parliament by Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde , following which both houses adjourned . On 3 December , condolence references were held for him . Reactions came from President Pranab Mukherjee , Prime Minister Manmohan Singh , Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chairman Lalu Prasad Yadav . Other immediate reactions came from MPs : Law Minister Ashwani Kumar , Veerappa Moily , Ghulam Nabi Azad . Minister for New and Renewable Energy Dr . Farooq Abdullah offered his condolences and said Gujral was a politician , a diplomat and a humanist who would be remembered for his many accomplishments in the diplomatic and political arena ; while Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Kumar Jena said Gujral had an exceptional personality , courage and intellect and that : Today we feel extremely saddened on the demise of former Prime Minister Shri Inder Kumar Gujral , who was a man of exceptional courage and intellect . The Union Cabinet issued a statement that read : In his death , India has lost a great patriot , a visionary leader and a freedom fighter . INC chairperson Sonia Gandhi wrote to Gujrals son , MP Naresh Gujral : ...the late leader had the ability to win goodwill and friendship across the political spectrum . It is these qualities and the genuine warmth of his personality that made him such a widely admired and respected Prime Minister of India , MP and ambassador . Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent a message to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he wrote : Shri Gujral was ahead of his times in a rapidly globalising world . Sri Lanka will always remember with gratitude , Shri I K Gujrals contribution towards strengthening India-Sri Lanka relations and regional cooperation . Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf mentioned Gujrals admirable role in boosting India-Pakistan relations , while he also said South Asia had lost a noble and distinguished politician . Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent an unnamed senior leader of her Awami League party for the funeral . Salman Khurshid and Lal Krishna Advani were amongst the dignitaries at his funeral . Honours . Gujral has received several accolades and honours : Foreign honours . - Bangladesh Liberation War Honour ( Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona ) Autobiography . - , Hay House , India , 519 pages , Feb . 2011 . . Distributors : Penguin books , India . ( The only autobiography by an Indian PM ) External links . - PM Office