Integrity, empathy were Gujral’s hallmarks

Tarlochan Singh
Former MP

I first met Inder Gujral in 1980. I had then accompanied the Indian Olympic contingent to Moscow where Gujral sahib was India’s Ambassador. I, therefore, had to meet him as a matter of courtesy. I requested for a personal audience, and lo and behold! He sent his personal car to take me to him. I knew that he was not protocol-minded, but that he could be so warm and informal was far from my imagination. Hence, it turned out to be a very friendly tete-a-tete. The fact that I came from Jhelum district, I think, also made him give me the kind of attention generally reserved for someone who is one’s own kin.

Thereafter, in 1982, I became the PR chief of the Asiad. Gujral sahib had come back from his ambassadorial stint. As a leading citizen of the Capital and one of the nation’s leading intellectuals, I was often in need of his advice and guidance, which I found was always available to me without any reserve and in ample measure. It was then that I started knowing him as a gentleman par excellence. Though he lived in the rarefied world of books and ideas, I found him rooted as much in the soil of reality. With no pretentions of mine as an intellectual, my interactions were just matter of fact and mundane. But he took it all in his stride. 

Soon afterwards, I became the press secretary to President Giani Zail Singh. This forced me into the thick of every kind of activity, moving as often as possible in the world of VIPs. Hence, I met Gujral sahib in several capacities and on several occasions. For, that was the time when the Punjab problem monopolised the attention of the nation. Gianiji was concerned with the day-to-day happenings, both as a Punjab leader and a Sikh. Thus, in those days, I often interacted with a cross-section of Punjabis not only in Delhi but also the world over. 

However, it was a great gain for me to know that Gujral sahib happened to be one of the finest Punjabis on the scene, in love with the culture and ethos of the land of his birth. Like many others, he, too, waxed and waned at each new twist and turn of events in Punjab. 

Talking to him on Punjab was always a revelation because not only did he know so many finer points of the Punjab problem, but he was also a true friend of the Sikhs. In a point of fact, the two Punjabis, viz Inder Kumar Gujral and Kuldip Nayar, had such a constructive approach to the whole imbroglio that I often make this point on every platform that if we had another handful of Punjabis like this twosome, there would have been no Punjab problem at all. 

These two Punjabis never shirked their responsibility to serve the nation in whichever capacity it was required. Their elevation as India’s Ambassadors in two of the most important capitals of the world —  Nayar in London and Gujral in Moscow — proved many things. But one of them is that non-service diplomats can outshine the career diplomats when called upon to do so. For, after all, ambassadorship happens to be a PR job for the nation. And, some men are born diplomats and PR men. 

I do not want to dwell upon so many sides of Gujral’s personality, for he was so multi-faceted that to do justice to such a man, even a whole book cannot suffice. As an elder intellectual and parliamentarian of the nation, he rubbed shoulders with some of the best minds of the world, even at a one-on-one level. But he wore his greatness so very lightly that he had friends from every walk of life. It was his boundless human empathy that made him so winsome in all possible situations. 

That’s why, in the times of coalition politics, he was called upon to take over the mantle of prime ministership of India, which at the best of times is no less than a crown of thorns. He gladly accepted the gauntlet. For, this challenge was an opportunity for him to prove that it was a new phase in the democratic evolution of the country. 

Perhaps, it was for the first time that true federalism, which was the experiment of our Constitution, was being worked out in real terms. And if that succeeded, it would have started a new era of political management in the country. To be able to satisfy the diverse aspirations of all kinds of people in different states was a mammoth task inasmuch as, most of these aspirations were kept bottled up. It was a role of destiny, which Gujral played with consummate ease. 

At 80, the way he worked, he could have put people younger to him to shame. But by not shirking his onerous responsibility, he had the challenge of carving out a place for himself in India’s history as a man of the moment. 

But the last and not the least important of his qualities was that he was an Ajatashatru, which means — a man without an enemy. Fortunately, at that time, we had both a Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) who equally shared this quality between them. The parliamentary debate, which took place on the 50th year of Independence, underlined this point so well, as brought out by these two stalwarts. Even when he was engaged in a bitter argument, as intellectuals mostly do, he remained so unruffled and pleasant that the one worsted in the argument was also happy at the outcome. That’s why even if he was so uncompromising in respect of his values and principles, he was flexible enough to take along with him even the worst of his detractors. 

Now adding to his basic integrity and incorruptibility, as well as human compassion, you would find that there was no crisis from which he didn't come out in flying colours. He took the courage to oppose the Emergency as a Cabinet minister of Indira Gandhi and had to quit. But this unusual step brought laurels to him. The Gujral Doctrine had already won him several friends and India was seen in an altogether different light. Hence, it was a matter of great luck of the nation that we had such a person who could lead us into the 21st century without jerks and jolts. He was always a man far ahead of his times.

At that point, India having a Punjabi Prime Minister was important for another reason as well. For the first time, we had a Punjabi and, that too, a refugee to deal with Pakistan. No one could have been more at ease while interacting with Pakistan’s Muslims. He had a rare command of the Urdu language and could quote Urdu poetry with such felicity that he could not but evoke a responsive chord in every heart in Pakistan. 

He was convinced that these two young nations could or shall fulfil their tryst with destiny only by burying the hatchet of mutual enmity and distrust.