Like his predecessor Deve Gowda, I.K. Gujral became prime
                minister because he was the least unacceptable among all the
                contenders in the Janata Dal. Though widely respected, Gujral's
                short tenure was littered with proof that he was not cut out for the
                rough and tumble of power politics. Political management was not
                one of his strong points as was evident from his inability to keep the
                14 parties in his coalition and his supporters from outside, the
                Congress, from squabbling.MA, B.Com, Ph.D. and D. Litt, the
                learned and erudite Gujral participated in Quit India in 1942 when he
                was the Lahore student's union president. He was a member of
                Indira Gandhi's all-powerful "kitchen cabinet" and held many
                portfolios in the Union cabinet. But the rise of Sanjay Gandhi in the
                '70s saw Gujral fall from grace and he was banished to Moscow as
                Ambassador. In 1989, he became the Union minister of external
                affairs in the V.P. Singh government but won no friends for the
                country by going to Baghdad to publicly embrace Saddam Hussein.
                Barring one entry into the Lok Sabha, he has preferred the safer
                mode of entry into Parliament-through the Upper House.
 
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