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| George is no more | | | R.B. Suri | 2/4/2019 11:22:44 PM |
| Fire brand George Fernandez is no more in this World. He died at the age of 88 on January 29 leaving his wife and a son behind. His wife Leela Kabir Fernandez is the daughter of former Union Minister Hamayun Kabir in the cabinet of Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. He was inflicted with serious ailments for the several years and remained confined to his residence. He passed away in New Delhi on January 29. Through out of his entire life George worked very hard in serving the people of the country as a trade unionist, an effective parliamentarian and as a Union Minister. In connection with the Baroda dynamite case, he remained in the jail (and while remaining in the jail itself, he filed the nomination papers and contested the Lok Sabha election in 1977) and won the Lok Sabha seat with a huge margin of votes more than 4 lakhs.
When he visited Jammu once in 1973 in connection with a function organized by his party of the time 'Socialist Party' J&K of which Dhan Raj Bhargotra ex-MLA was the President of the state unit. At the time, I were studying in the GGM Science College and were in the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha. I got an opportunity to meet him and had the interactions for hours together. I were just a student at that time, while having the discussions and the interactions, he praised me. I requested him to visit our residence at Pacca Danga over the breakfast which was acceded to by him. He came to our residence and had the breakfast prepared by my late mother Krishna Rani Suri.
Having taken the breakfast, he thanked us and said that he really enjoyed the breakfast and praised the gesture shown to him by my family. I don't exactly remember the date when he came to our residence. Harbhajan Singh the then Punjab Cabinet Minister and the then Mayor of Amritsar Kirpal Singh, Dhan Raj Bargotra, Harbans Singh, Banarsi Lal Langar, Sanjesh Gupta .Gupta and Kartar Nath were accompanying him during his tour to Jammu. They also had the breakfast at our residence. Since I were doing the hectic activities in the social field vigorously at that time and having satisfied fully and really impressed, George Fernandez offered me to come over to New Delhi and do his party work and the nation as well. Since my family circumstances did not permit me for going to New Delhi, I spoke to George Sahib that I could not be able to come to New Delhi. After that George Sahib time and again, insisted me for the same. George Fernandez remained very active in the Indian politics and had made the dent in the Indian politics. George Fernandez remained as the Defense Minister of India in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Prior to it he too remained as the Union Industry Minister in the cabinet of the former Prime Minister of India Morarji Bhai Desai. It was he who gave the concept of the District Industry Centers across the country in order to provide the governmental services to the Industrial sector under the one roof.
Against the dictatorial attitude of the then Prime Minister of the country Madam Indira Gandhi, Jaya Prakash Narayan (JP) launched the massive movement in the country. This agitation was named as JP Andolan. At that time, Madam Indira Gandhi was ruling the country as a dictator and during her regime no heed was being paid to the opposition. Feeling neglected out rightly, the entire opposition went behind JP in the country for fighting against the misrule of Madam Gandhi. During this time, in an election case filed by Raj Narayan against Madam Gandhi, a Judgment came from the Allahabad High Court against Madam Gandhi unseating her from the membership of the Parliament instantly. On this score, furiously, she clamped the "EMERGENCY" in the country and almost all the top opposition leaders were arrested in the midnight of June 25 and 26, 1975 and they were put behind the 'Bars'.
1n 1977, the emergency was lifted from the country and the elections to the Lok Sabha were held and Janata Party came to power and Morarji Bhai Desai became the Prime Minister of the Country. I am just recollecting the days when people who are the real owners of this great country were not heard properly. This deadly agitation was fought by the then old opposition stalwarts like JP himself, Morarji Desai, Atal Ji, George Fernandez, L.K. Advani, Charan Singh and they remained the victorious against the dictatorial rule of Madam Indira Gandhi.
George also remained as the Chairman of a leading Labour Cooperative Bank in Bombay. He was the first Defense Minister of India in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who visited the Siachin glacier remotest site of the country touching China while flying in the fastest fighting Air force plane and made the precedence in the country's defense history. It is worth mentioning over here that over a no confidence motion brought by the Indira Congress of the time against Morarji Bhai Desai government, his speech in the Indian Parliament in defending the Morarji's government was remarkable one. He always opposed the dictatorial policies of the Indira government tooth and nail. Immediately after imposing the emergency in the country Indira Gandhi put all the leaders of the opposition parties put behind the bars and kept them in the Sona Jail in Haryana when Ch. Bansi Lal was the Chief Minister of Haryana. While remaining in the jails, the major leaders of the opposition parties leaving their ideologies apart formed the Janata Party to give the befitting reply to Madame Indira Gandhi and opposed the emergency like anything. At that time the JP Andolan was in full swing to achieve the total revolution in the country. Under the strong and able leadership of Jaya Prakash Narayan, people from all walks of life participated at large on the JP's call they made their massive arrests. After the lifting of the emergency from the country Indira Gandhi announced the elections to the Lok Sabha. Janata Party contested the said elections and won the majority resulting which Janata Party ruled the nation under the Prime Minister ship of Morarji Bhai Desai with his Deputy Ch. Charan Singh a big farmers leader.
Pertinent to mention here that Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav, Surender Mohan, Deva Gowda, Malayam Singh Yadav, Harmohan Dhawan, Sushma Sawaraj and her husband also. Prem Bhasin, N.G. Goray, Madhu Dandavate, Promila Dandavate, Karpoori Thakur, Com. Kirpa Shankar, Swamy Agnivesh, Com. Palliwal and many others front liners in the Indian politics were his juniors and remained his comrades. A few days back, on his death, our Governor Satya Prakash Malik has also come out with saying that he was closely associated with the departed leader and had worked with him effectively. I am just recollecting those days and apprising the readers that George Sahib was the fire brand leader in the Indian politics and he was a big disciple of Ram Manohar Lohia who was the head of the socialist movement in this country. Atal ji, Lal Krishan Advani and Morarji Bhai Desai were the major leaders who had the great respect for George Fernandez. When he was the Industry Minister , I met him in New Delhi as a courtesy call and had the interactions with him.
For some time he remained as the Union Minister for Kashmir affairs in 1989 when the state of Jammu and Kashmir was under the Governor Rule and Jagmohan was the Governor. George and Jagmohan were not on the same page, Both were not having good ties at that time. I am just recollecting that George Sahib visited our state many a times when Dr. Farooq's government was toppled by his Brother in Law Ghulam Mohammed Shah in 1984. Once I got the opportunity to meet him in Jammu when was to address a public meeting at Parade in support of Dr. Farooq Abdullah. Getting a chance to enter into the active politics, I missed the opportunity in not complying with the wishes and the directions of the great leader George Sahib. I am not repenting the same but want to pen down here that the destiny plays the major role in one's life as I through out of my life remained confined to my state only to earn my bread and butter. It was my ill luck to enter politics of the time. At the end, I pay my rich tributes to the departed leader and pray to the almighty to give the rest to his pious soul and provide the courage and strength to his family members to bear the irreparable loss due to his death. |
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