'I bow to the people of India in humility'

"I bow to the people of India in humility," said Inder Kumar Gujral after the United Front selected him as their candidate for prime minister on Saturday night. ''A humble man will serve the nation in the 50th year of the country's independence,'' he said.

He said his government would address the basic problems of the country like poverty, backwardness and social injustice on a priority basis.

Gujral has long shown that his disarming charm conceals a quiet inflexibility when the case demands it.

"We have demonstrated the strength of our conviction and national resolve in the past; we have the courage to do so again," he had quietly declared, while justifying the H D Deve Gowda government's rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear arms.

Coming back to the helm of Indian diplomacy after six years, Gujral has improved Indian relations with China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. But at the same time, the country failed to secure a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, losing out to Japan, perhaps due to his stand on universal and non-discriminatory nuclear disarmament.

Gujral has continued to follow a Nehruvian foreign policy, its essence being independence of judgement and upholding Indian soveriegnty and self-respect. He has been in public life for almost three decades. He is married to poetess Sheila Gujral, and his brother Satish Gujral is an eminent artist. He has two sons.

He was born to freedom fighter parents on December 4,1919 in Jhelum in Pakistan. His father, Avtar Narain Gujral, and his mother were active in the liberation struggle in Punjab. His father later became a member of the legislative council in Punjab.

He was a student leader of some renown during his school days in Lahore. He was remembered particularly for his exploits in the Bal Bharat children's movement. He was jailed for his role in the Quit India Movement in 1942 and resettled in Delhi after Partition to start an import-export business.

He joined the Congress in the fifties and, in 1959, became the president of the New Delhi Municipal Committee -- a post he held till 1964.

In 1967, he entered the Rajya Sabha and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's kitchen cabinet. He and Dinesh Singh were part of her close advisors, particularly on domestic affairs. Between 1967-76, he held a number of portfolios, beginning with works and housing. He is credited with having formulated a master plan for Delhi. He was minister for parliamentary affairs before shifting to information and broadcasting during the Emergency.

In 1976, he was relegated to the Planning Commission and then sent to Moscow as ambassador. He was retained as ambassador by Morarji Desai and Charan Singh.

One of Indira Gandhi's admirers, he became one of her critics during her return to power and, subsequently, Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as prime minister he remained out of government.

He entered the Lok Sabha for the first time in the 1989 election from Jalandhar and became the external affairs minister in the V P Singh government, which was in office for less than a year. When the United Front government came to power in 1996, he returned as external affairs minister.

Gujral is regarded as a thinking politician and is held in esteem in intellectual circles. Soft-spoken, suave and polished, he has the reputation of being a progressive. These qualities must have weighed with the UF when it chose him as their leader. In addition, he is acceptable to the constituents of the 13-party combine as well as the Congress on whose support the UF government will run.

During his long public career, he has held numerous important offices and been a leader or member of many Indian delegations to international meets. With Gujral at the helm of foreign policymaking for the second time, India has taken a major stride in ensuring a peaceful border with China by signing an agreement under which New Delhi and Beijing pledged not to use military capability against each other.

During the same time, India had also signed a 30-year treaty with Bangladesh, laying down a fair and equitable formula for the sharing of Ganga waters at Farakka during the lean season from January to May. When Congress president Sitaram Kesri sent his letter to the President on March 30, stating his party's withdrawal of support to the UF government, talks between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan were in progress.

They have not been seriously hampered, with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stating his resolve to wait out the political crisis in India. With Gujral's appointment, his confidence seems vindicated.