Inder Kumar Gujral or IK Gujral served as the 12th Prime Minister of India. He served as the Prime Minister of the country from April 21, 1997 to March 19, 1998. He started his political journey as the vice-president of the New Delhi Municipal Committee in 1958. It was in 1964 that he joined the Indian National Congress and became a member of Rajya Sabha. It was sometime in 1980s, Gujral resigned from the Congress party and joined the Janata Dal.
The former Prime Minister died on November 30, 2012 due to multiple organ failure. On I K Gujral's 7th death anniversary, here are some of the lesser known facts you should know about him:
1. IK Gujral was the third Prime Minister of India who was from the Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). The first two were Indira Gandhi and HD Deve Gowda.
2. Born on December 4, 1919, to a family of freedom fighters, IK Gujral himself participated in the freedom struggle in 1931. He was arrested and was beaten by the police for organising movement of young children in the Jhelum town in undivided Punjab.
3. Gujral also participated in the Indian Independence movement and was put behind the bar in 1942 during the Quit India Movement.
4. Before assuming the office of the Prime Minister of India in April 1997, Gujral was the Minister of External Affairs from June 1, 1996 and even held additional charge of the Ministry of Water Resources from June 28, 1996.
5. IK Gujral was the Information and Broadcasting Minister during the time when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the state of emergency in 1975. He was the in-charge of the media during the time of censorship on news and information in India.
6. Gujral was appointed Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union by Indira Gandhi and he continued with the post during the tenures of Morarji Desai and Charan Singh.
7. IK Gujral served as Minister of External Affairs in Prime Minister VP Singh's eleventh cabinet of India. He was one of the two ministers sent to Srinagar by Singh to negotiate with perpetrators of the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and the then Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
8. IK Gujral served as the Minister of External Affairs during the Prime Ministership of HD Deve Gowda. During this time, he propounded the 'Gujral Doctrine', a set of 5 principles, which is considered a milestone in India's foreign policy.
9. Apart from politician, Gujral was also a writer and commentator on National and International Affairs, as well as theatre.
10. IK Gujral was fluent in Urdu and was very fond of poetry.
Comments
0 comment