Veteran politician George Fernandes, who was a key opposition activist during the Emergency and served as minister in the governments of Morarji Desai, V.P. Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee, passed away early on Tuesday at the age of 88. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Fernandes was born in Mangaluru in 1930 and was training to be a Roman Catholic priest when he got attracted towards trade union politics. Fernandes rose as a prominent socialist leader in Mumbai and made his mark in politics when he defeated veteran Congressman S.K. Patil in the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency in the 1967 elections; the victory bestowed on Fernandes the tag of “giant killer”.
A vehement critic of Indira Gandhi, Fernandes played a key role in organising the nationwide rail workers strike of 1974 and was arrested in 1976 during the Emergency for allegedly attempting to blow up railway bridges. Fernandes served as industries minister in Morarji Desai government (1977-1979), Railways minister in the V.P. Singh government (1989-90) and defence minister in the Vajpayee government (1998-2004).
During his tenure in the Vajpayee government, Fernandes oversaw the Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998 Kargil war, but allegations of corruption were levelled against him over the purchase of coffins, the Barak missile deal and the Tehelka expose. Fernandes resigned as defence minister over the Tehelka expose in early 2001, but returned to the minister later that year.
