Veteran socialist leader — Defence Minister in the Vajpayee Govt — was suffering from Alzheimer’s and had recently contracted swine flu
Veteran socialist George Fernandes, who was the Defence Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, passed away on Tuesday following a prolonged illness. He was 88. Fernandes was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, which had forced him out of the public eye for last many years. He had recently contracted swine flu. Fernandes died at his residence here.
He was India’s Defence Minister in the NDA Government headed by Vajpayee when India fought the Kargil war in 1999. It was during his tenure that India conducted nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998. He was the Industry Minister under the Janata Party Government which had defeated former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1977.
The doctors declared Fernandes dead at his home already before he could be moved to a private hospital. “Fernandes was attended to at his home by a Max Healthcare team, which found him unresponsive and declared him dead on Tuesday at 06:42 am,” the hospital said.
Fernandes, who was born to a Christian family in Mangalore, Karnataka, burst into national limelight when as a firebrand trade unionist in Mumbai he organised a Railways strike in 1974 that brought the country to a standstill. Ironically, he became the Railways Minister in 1989 under VP Singh’s National Front coalition Government, comprising mostly Left leaning parties.
Despite being a staunch critic of the RSS, Fernandes joined the BJP-led NDA Government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998 and 1999, in which he was appointed the Defence Minister. It was also during his tenure that India conducted nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998.
He was also the Industries Minister under the Janata Party Government which had defeated former Prime Minster Indira Gandhi in 1977. Soon he was at loggerheads with industrialists and demanded that Coca-Cola and IBM comply with foreign ownership regulations, which forced them to shut down their operations and quit India.
He faded away from public consciousness after unsuccessfully fighting the 2009 Parliamentary elections, ending a political career that had begun with him defeating veteran Congress MP SK Patil from Bombay South in the 1967 Lok Sabha Elections. He subsequently represented Muzzafarpur and Nalanda constituencies in Bihar, and was also a Rajya Sabha member in 2009-2010.
A wave of sorrow swept across Bihar, which Fernandes had virtually adopted as his second home and political ‘karmabhoomi’, representing its various constituencies in Parliament for a period spanning over four decades. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has declared a two-day State mourning.
Fernandes had played a critical role in the anti-Emergency movement of the Opposition parties that ousted Indira Gandhi in 1977. During the 1975-77 Emergency, when civil liberties were severely curtailed and Opposition throttled, Fernandes was arrested in the so-called Baroda Dynamite case.
Fernandes found refuge in Tamil Nadu during the Emergency and worked form a house there. Fernandes made good friends with late M Karunanidhi and after Karunanidhi opposed the emergency his DMK Government was dismissed on January 31, 1976. When Karunanidhi was arrested in 2001 during the AIADMK regime, Fernandes, who was then the convener of the National Democratic Alliance, had visited the DMK patriarch at the Central Prison here and then Union Minister Murasoli Maran at a hospital.
Fernandes alos expressed his great for Vietnam and stated that “If there is a rebirth, I would like to be born as a Vietnamese”. Addressing the annual conference of Karnataka Planters Association about one and half decades ago in Bengaluru as Defence Minister he described Vietnamese people as a disciplined, committed and determined lot. He was India’s first Defence Minister to have visited Vietnam.
Fernandes studied in Bengaluru to escape from his father’s legal profession. Born in Mangalore, Fernandes joined the St Peter’s Seminary at the age of 16 in 1946 after doing high schooling here but stayed there only for two years. His parents sent him to the seminary so that he can become a Roman Catholic priest, a wish that did not materialise.
Free thinking and independent that he was from an early age, Fernandes left the seminary after he felt there were blemishes in the Church which he found hard to compromise with. He though there was a lot of difference between words and practice in the institution of Church and that rectors got better food than seminarians.
According to a published account of his wife Leila Kabir Fernandes on a website, he was excommunicated from the Church for his bold views. He joined the trade union movement where PD Mello became his mentor. The former Defence Minister was a polyglot who conversed in Tulu, Kannada and Konkani whenever he interacted with people from the Dakshina Kannada region. However, in his political career, he never contested from the region. Fernandes was fluent in Hindi and English.