Ex-PM Gujral's family upset as memorial remains unfinished

A year after the death of former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, his son, Naresh, has complained that the government is yet to build a proper memorial for his father.

Naresh Gujral, a leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), said: "I am very pained and perplexed by the attitude of the Government of India. I have met the Prime Minister several times to request him to complete the Samadhi of my late father, Shri I.K. Gujral. And, this has been done for every single former prime minister and president. So, I don't understand why they are making an exception in this case. Perhaps, because I am in the opposition, and I criticise the government from time to time."

Born on December 4, 1919, Gujral served as the 12th Prime Minister of India from April 1997 to March 1998.

In the mid-1980s, he left the Congress party and joined the Janata Dal.

Gujral was elected from the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency in Punjab in the 1989 elections.

Naresh Gujral said that even though he had offered to pay for the contruction of the memorial, he had received no response from the government.

"As you would see from one of my letters, I have even offered to pay to fix the Samadhi. I am not asking the government to bear the expenses. Yet, they don't even reply to my letters. Mr. Arun Jaitley, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, has also written to the prime minister, but even he has not got any reply from the prime minister so far," said Naresh Gujral.

I.K. Gujral was popular for his 'Gujral Doctrine', as he pressed for cordial relations with neighbouring countries.

He died at the age of 92 due to lung infection in Gurgaon on November 30, 2012.