George Fernandese, roaring lion of Indian politics till the first half decade of this century was immobilized in bed inside his home in New Delhi. The fully air conditioned room had a look of a hospital room with his wife Leila Kabir attending to nursing him. But he was not even aware. His deeply sunk eyes were open and looking at the ceiling but without seeing anything. Retina images were not transported to the brain that was left with no memories. Without memories, there is not mind.
The American Biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton says five sensory organs of beings take eleven lakh messages a second to unconscious mind. But here the human marvel was converted into a marble by the advanced stage of the most dreaded ailment Alzameir. He is third victim of incurable disease among members of the political affairs committee of the Vajpayee government. The former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his foreign minister Jaswant Singh were also gripped by it. Two others Lal Krishna Advani and Yashwant Singh are out of the favour of the present regime. Five were a party to the decision that released three dreaded terrorists in Indian captivity in exchange for passengers and Plane of the Indian Airlines taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan after hijacked in is flight from Kathmandu to Delhi. Advani claimed in 2009 before elections that he was not a party to the decision but three others had contested his claim. Yashwant Sinha had avoided any part in the controversy.
Lal Krishna Advani came to inaugurate the website to be the mirror to life and contributions of George Fernandese from his trade unionism in Mumbai to his retirement as the Indian defence minister. Leila wanted to retain memories of his works for new generation of Indians. No one pointed out to her that three men of Indian politics had contradicted claim of Lal Krishna Advani in 2009 that he was not a party to the decision to allow release of three dreaded terrorist who were escorted by the then foreign minister Jaswant Singh.
My presence at the residence of George Fernandese on June 3 was to be merely a part of a crowd of fifty assembled by Leila to mark occasion of 88th birthday of George. She did not pull out her violin to play as the five years of restless work of attending to her ailing husband had sapped all her energies and urges to live on. She had known that George considered me to be close associate as he had seen me covering his trade union activities in Mumbai. But more because of my contribution as his political agent to his major achievement in political terms of trouncing the uncrowned king of Mumbai Sadoba Kanhoji Patil in the 1967 Lok Sabha election from South Mumbai. She had asked me to write my memories of her husband as trade union leader and later as parliamentarian. She was also aware that I was moved to Delhi within a month from Mumbai to Delhi after George came to parliament.
The change in shift from Mumbai to Delhi was amazing. He roared like a lion in Mumbai and his roar terrified not only industry but also the state government. The man who was trained to be a priest in Church had voluntarily left his home and family in Karnataka, then Mysore state, to shake the industrial jungle of the commercial capital of India. He was 28 years old but in four years he had emerged as lion of Mumbai. Even Datta Samant, controlling major portion of work force in unorganized industries sector had never dared to cross his path while the Communist controlled All India Trade Union Congress never dared to challenge George and his team. George maintained very firm stand and yet he was very soft hearted character who abhorred violence. May be his initial training in religious discourse had left a deep impact on his mind. He would rush with food for families of his striking workers if the strike extended beyond three days.
Frequency of our contacts got reduced in Delhi as sphere were different and also needs. The king of Kamdars in Mumbai was reduced to a pebble in the vast political empire. He said once, politics in democracies has to be a game where winners take it all and losers bear it all. Here only words play rounds and not actions. Only in dictatorship of Individuals or domination of ideologies the action plays but not in interest of mass but only for class. Yet his preference was for democracy as other forms tend to take away freedom and rights. He very firmly used to say ‘I would rather perish as poor rather than thrive as rich but without my rights to decide.’
He was aware of limitations imposed by numbers. Ingenious mind he was, he was constantly in search of new methods to defeat the ruling party in parliamentary games. When the opposition was unable to move the government to accept parliamentary probe into the Tul Mohan Ram Scandal or also known as Pondicherry licenses scandal to expose role of the then commerce minister LN Mishra, he wrote scathing article in his fortnightly known as Pratipaksha and then goaded Piloo Mody of Swatantra Party to move a privilege motion against George. But the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi understood the game of getting the parliamentary probe in indirect way and frustrated the game by sheer weight of numbers with her. Six months later Mishra was killed in a blast in his railway compartment near Samasttipur in Bihar.
As defence minister at the time of the Kargil conflict George had to take two major decisions on personal basis, first to buy explosives for the Bofors Guns and second was Coffins for the Army. The Congress could not question first decision as it was fraught with danger of exposing immaturity of the Rajiv Gandhi government in cancelling the Bofors agreement without getting the mechanism for manufacture of explosives in India. But allegations were flung at him in second decision.
He said in private ‘my conscience is not a thing that can be held in hand or displayed in a show case. It is part of my being. I do not need to show’ He was a rare human in politics. Today he remains immobilized as he has been for more than four years. I touched his arm sticking out of the body cover. The darkened wrist was colder than normal human temperature, may because of chill of air conditioned air. But touched shudder through my mind in comprehension that my touch did not send any message to his mind. He is not living but that proud man also cannot end it all for no-thought crosses his mind not even touches. He suffers but without pain in it.