Former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral died in Gurgaon today afternoon at around 3.00 pm. The announcement was made by Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in the Lok Sabha. “Gujral passed away at 3.31 pm at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon,” said the home minister. As per sources Mr Gujral was admitted to Medanta Hospital on November 19 with a lung infection. 92-year-old Gujral, whose Birthday falls on December 4 was on dialysis for over a year and had contracted a serious chest infection some days ago. He will be cremated in nearby Delhi on Saturday.
Mr Gujral served as Prime Minister of India for around a year between 1996 and 1997, during the United Front Government. He succeeded H D Deve Gowda as Prime Minister after the Congress withdrew support to the United Front government and remained at the Congress' mercy till his own government fell.
Gujral, who migrated from Pakistan after partition, rose to become the Prime Minister Educated at DAV College, Haily College of Commerce and Forman Christian College, Lahore (now in Pakistan), Gujral took active part in student politics. After the tumultuous events that rocked the sub-continent in the wake of partition in August 1947, Gujral migrated to India.
Braving heavy odds with his perseverance, resilience and never-say-die attitude, Gujral first became vice-president of the New Delhi Municipal Committee in 1958. He formally joined Congress and six years later, Indira Gandhi, to whom he said he owed everything, gave him a ticket with which he entered Rajya Sabha in April 1964.
He was part of the 'coterie' that helped Indira Gandhi become Prime Minister in 1966. In Gandhi's government, he held several portfolios as Union minister for Communications, parliamentary affairs and housing. He was the information and broadcasting minister when Emergency was imposed (on June 25, 1975), which brought in arbitrary press censorship.
Since he refused to kowtow to the powers-that-be, he was taken out of the ministry and sent by Indira Gandhi as ambassador to Moscow, a post he handled with tact and finesse. He continued even during the tenures of her two successors, Morarji Desai and Charan Singh.
