NEW DELHI // Inder Kumar Gujral, who served a brief term as India's prime minister, died yesterday after a brief illness. He was 92.
Parliament adjourned for the day when news of Gujral's death broke and the current premier, Manmohan Singh, called him "a man of peace, an idealist who lived by his principles, and an intellectual with the human touch".
Gujral's tenure as prime minister between April 1997 and March 1998 was perhaps most notable for his authorship of the Gujral Doctrine, an approach to foreign policy based on peaceful accommodation, arguing that India should treat other South Asian countries with generosity.
The doctrine led to a thaw in relations with Pakistan at the time.
"The Gujral Doctrine contributed much to the foreign policy of the country," said SK Dwivedi, head of the department of political science at the University of Lucknow. "He promoted a working relationship with neighbouring countries, [and the idea] that India should work with its neighbours, including China."
Born in present-day Pakistan, Gujral participated in the freedom movement against the British, and he chose to cross the border into India when the country won its independence in 1947.
Working his way up through municipal politics, Gujral rose to the higher ranks of the Congress Party, drawing close to Indira Gandhi in the 1960s. Under her administration he served as minister of information and broadcasting and then as ambassador to the Soviet Union.
But in the 1980s, Gujral left the party and joined the socialist Janata Dal, becoming India's foreign minister when the group came to power in 1989. During this period he made perhaps his most famous misstep: hugging Saddam Hussein during a visit to Baghdad in 1990, well after Iraq had invaded Kuwait.
Gujral's elevation to prime minister has often been described as a result of good fortune.
As Natwar Singh, a former member of the Congress Party, remembered it, the Janata Dal, along with a jumble of regional parties, had formed a coalition government under HD Deve Gowda.
But the coalition started to lose its majority in parliament when various parties became unhappy with Mr Gowda. The decision was taken to replace him "but they couldn't agree upon a prime ministerial candidate", Mr Singh said.
"Finally, everybody decided that Inder Gujral was the best choice," Mr Singhsaid. "But I don't think he worked for it or canvassed for it in any way. They knew he had been a successful foreign minister, and he was generally widely respected."
The Gujral Doctrine aside, Gujral's prime ministership left a slender legacy - a result, Mr Dwivedi said, of the politicking between the various parties in the coalition. Since it included neither of India's two biggest parties, the coalition was often called a Third Front.
"Even today, if there is to be a Third Front, there are lessons to be learnt from Gujral's time," said Mr Dwivedi. "You cannot succeed unless you outline the ideology that should form the basis of the Third Front - something that binds the various regional parties together."
The fragility of the coalition led to Gujral's resignation in November 1997, although he continued in the position until elections could be held in March 1998. In 1999, when general elections were called yet again, he decided not to contest, retiring from active politics.
"He was a gentleman throughout," Mr Singh said yesterday. "I'm very sad to learn that he's gone."
Gujral is survived by two sons, Naresh and Vishal. His elder son Naresh is a member of the Punjab-based Shiromani Akali Dal party and was elected to the upper house of parliament in 2007.
Gujral's brother Satish ranks among India's most prominent artists and architects.
ssubramanian@thenational.ae