Obituary: Heartfelt tributes to George Sahib

A renowned socialist, a strong and powerful trade union leader of the Railways who brought its operations to stand still during seventies, union industry minister in Janata Party government under Morarji Desai closing the Coca Cola, railway minister under VP Singh’s government n overseeing the Kargil war in 1999 as the defence minister in prime minister Vajpayee’s cabinet George Fernandiz is no more. Suffering from Alzheimer since long and away from public life for the last few years Fernandiz breathed his last today after having been the victim of dreaded Swine flu at the age of 88.

The founder of Samata Party George Fernandiz breathed his last in a Delhi hospital. George Fernadiz was primarily a socialist who worked hard in trade union movements responsible for bringing Mumbai to complete halt in 1974 in support of the several demands of Railwaymen.

The then government of Congress led by late Smt. Indira Gandhi slapped against him the Baroda Dynamite case in order to demoralise him.

He was immensely instrumental in opposing the emergency from 1975 to 1977 n played a vital role in supporting the Janata Party ousting Indira Gandhi from power.

George was in jail for a pretty long time but was released after the formation of Janata Party in 1977 and was appointed as the union industry minister. It was the time of the License Raj and George Fernandiz who was by nature n ideology against the industrialists was always at loggerheads with them.

He always kept the affluents n rich industrialists at bay n kept them waiting for hours outside his ministerial chamber who came to see him.

It was during the tenure of Fernandiz as industry minister that foreign company proprietors operating in India were in real problems. He slapped foreign exchange violation charges against the then powerful companies like Coca Cola n IBM thus forcing them to leave India.

It was indeed a remarkable decision by a socialist minister against foreign companies operating in India and openly violating the foreign exchange norms.

George Fernandiz send shivers down the spine of the big industrial houses of the country resulting in extracting maximum tax output from them.

Born in a christian family of Karnataka George Fernandiz started his career in socio political life as a dynamic trade unionist having become nationally popular after his Railway Strike in 1974 bringing the entire Mumbai to stand still.

He served as the Industry minister under Morarji Desai followed by his induction as Railway minister in VP Singh’s government in 1989. He was minister of Defence in Vajpayee’s cabinet having supervised n monitored the entire Kargil war.

He served as a strong defence minister full of knowlege n clear cut vision. George was in bad health after 2009 while being the Rajya Sabha member having lost his memory suffering from Alzheimer desease.

George Fernandiz also edited a magazine ” Pratipaksh” from Hauz khas office for a long time carrying progressive articles on the working class, women n ideological issues.

The president of India Ram Nath Kovind, Prime minister Narendra Modi n Rahul Gandhi etc condoled his death. PM Modi tweeted: Georhe Fernandiz was a free, frank n fearless n never deviated from his ideology. I also got the privilege to interview him twice at his 3 Krishna Menon Marg residence while he was the union minister.