Date: Tue, 22 Apr 1997 14:50:01 +0100
From: John Hutnyk <John.Hutnyk-AT-man.ac.uk>
Subject: Indian PM


>From the Sydney Morning Herald. Monday, April 21, 1997

     Straight and true - but can a left-winger lead this
     nation?

     He's honest and well-informed, but many doubt the new PM can
succeed, as
     CHRISTOPHER KREMMER reports.

     New Delhi: He is that rarest commodity in Indian politics today - a
cultivated and
     honest man. But the question Indians are asking about Mr Inder
Kumar Gujral, their
     Prime Minister-in-waiting after being chosen to head the United
Front coalition, is
     whether he is a true leader.

     A national opinion poll published in India Today magazine shows
that when
     respondents were asked to name their preferred prime minister, his
name failed to
     register.

     Mr Gujral holds two doctorates, one in philosophy and another in
literature, and is
     widely respected for his integrity. But many conservatives worry
that as a life-long
     socialist, Mr Gujral is burdened by ideological beliefs which may
hamper India's
     development.

     India's ambassador to Moscow from 1976 to 1980, he was a close
friend of the
     former Soviet Union.

     In 1990, as Minister for External Affairs, Mr Gujral visited Iraq
just after it invaded
     Kuwait and was photographed being embraced by Saddam Hussein. The
visit helped
     extricate millions of Indian workers from the Gulf War war area but
the image lingered
     as a sign of a man wedded to a past world order.

     Since becoming External Affairs Minister for a second time last
June, he has
     championed India's refusal to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty banning nuclear
     weapons tests because he sees it as a conspiracy to entrench the
Big Five's nuclear
     domination.

     Beginning as an activist in the fight against British rule, he
first joined the Communist
     Party before moving on to the Congress, where he rose rapidly under
the patronage of
     the late prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi. He later joined the
centre-left Janata Dal.

--

********************************************
John Hutnyk
John.Hutnyk-AT-man.ac.uk
http://les.man.ac.uk/~msrdsjh/index.htm
mail: Dept Social Anthropology
University of Manchester
M13 9PL, UK
tel: +44 (0)161 248 8967



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