Gujral, Inder Kumar

Inder Kumar Gujral

Prime Minister of India (1997-1998)

Place and Date of Birth:

Jhelum, West Punjab (Formerly British India, now Pakistan), December 4, 1919.

Education:

Bachelors Degree in Communications and Masters Degree in Economics.

Political Career:

Gujral belongs to a family of freedom fighters and actively participated in the freedom struggle in Punjab. He was arrested and jailed in 1942 during the Quit India Movement

After India’s independence from British rule in 1947, Gujral was elected Vice-President of the New Delhi Municipal Committee, serving from 1956 to 1964. In 1964 he was elected Member of the Rajya Sabha, a position he held until 1976. From 1967 to 1976 he held several Ministerial positions, including Minister of Communications and Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Communications; Minister of Works and Housing; Minister of Information and Broadcasting; and Minister of Planning.

From 1976 to 1980, Gujral served as Ambassador of India to the USSR, a Cabinet Rank position. He was Minister of External Affairs twice, from 1989 to1990 and from 1996 to 1998. He served as a Member of the Lok Sabha from 1989 to 1991. From 1993 to 1996 he served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce and as Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs. In 1996 he became Leader of the House, serving until 1997. In 1997 he was elected Prime Minister of India, serving until 1998.

Gujral has held many other important offices, including Chairman of the Indian Council of South Asian Cooperation, Member of the Capital Plan Monitoring Committee, President of the Institute of Defense Studies & Analysis (IDSA), Chairman of the Official Committee for the Promotion of Urdu, President of the Indo-Pak Friendship Society, and Convener and Spokesman of the United Front of the Opposition Parties Conclave at Calcutta, Srinagar and Delhi.

He is also a Founding Member of the World Political Forum, Member of the Center for Security and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Global Aging,  Member of the International AIDS Trust, Member of the BOAO Forum for Asia, and Board Member of the International Crisis Group (ICG).

Other:

Gujral has received many Doctorates Honoris Causa and numerous awards, including the Order of Friendship (Russia), the St. Andrew International Award for the Dialogue of Civilisations (Russia), the Order of Yugoslav Star First Degree (FRY), and the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award from the Punjabi University in Patiala. He is an author and commentator on national and international affairs and his works include A Foreign Policy for India (2001) and Continuity & Change: India’s Foreign Policy (2002). He is a scholar of Urdu and Persian.