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The Wire
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Wire
George Fernandes: A Man of Many Contradictions
This article is part of a series by The Wire titled 'The Early Parliamentarians', exploring the lives and work of post-independence MPs who have largely been forgotten. The series looks at the institutions they helped create, the enduring ideas they left behind and the contributions they made to nation building. George Mathew Fernandes is known as a firebrand socialist leader of his time. He was a priest for a short period, a trade unionist, agriculturist, political activist, human rights activist, parliamentarian and journalist, all rolled into one. He led the famous railway strike involving 1.5 million rail workers in 1974, when the entire nation was brought to a halt. As the chairman of the Socialist Party of India, minister of communications, minister of industry, minister of railways and minister of defence, Fernandes was full of surprises and contradictions. When he was a Union minister in the Morarji Desai government, he defended the no-confidence motion against his government in July 1979 for two and a half hours, and then resigned the same day. In 1979, an India Today article described Fernandes as 'novice priest to socialist firebrand, trade union leader to the most wanted man on the run(during emergency), and now, a reluctant senior cabinet minister'. Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty. Fernandes was born on June 3, 1930 in Mangalore to a Mangalorean Catholic family. He did his early schooling at a government school called 'Board school', a municipal and a church school. He studied from fifth grade at the school attached to St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, where he completed his Secondary School Leaving Certificate. He went to St Peter's Seminary in Bangalore at the age of 16, to be trained as a Roman Catholic priest, studying philosophy for two and a half years from 1946 to 1948. Fernandes began work at the age of 19, organising exploited workers in the road transport industry and in the hotels and restaurants in Mangalore. He gathered hotel workers and other menial labourers in the city. Fernandes and a few other union workers led Mangalore's earliest labour strikes on behalf of the workers of Canara Public Conveyance in 1949. The police cracked down on the strike, even resorting to a lathi charge. After the strike, Fernandes came in contact with renowned Bombay-based Trade Union leader Placid D'Mello (1919-1958). Fernandes later left for Bombay in 1950 and faced tremendous hardships. His life was tough in the metropolis and he had to sleep on the streets until he got a job as a proofreader for a newspaper. In his own words, 'When I came to Bombay, I used to sleep on the benches of the Chowpatty Sands. In the middle of the night, policemen would come and wake me up and ask me to move.' Here he came in contact with socialist leader Rammanohar Lohia, who was also one of the greatest influences on his life. Later, he joined the party and its trade union movement under the veteran trade union leader Placid D' Mello and became his disciple. After D'Mello's death in 1958, Fernandes succeeded him in managing the dock workers' unions and other major labour force unions in the city that included the taximen unions, textile mills and mazdoor unions. He rose to prominence as a trade unionist and fought for the rights of labourers in small-scale industries such as hotels and restaurants. Emerging as a key figure in the Bombay labour movement in the early 1950s, Fernandes was pivotal in the unionisation of sections of Bombay labour. As a fiery trade union leader, Fernandes organised many strikes and bandhs in Bombay in the 50s and 60s and soon came to be known as 'Bumbai Bandh Ka Hero'. He served as a member of the Bombay Municipal Corporation from 1961 to 1967 and continuously raised the problems of the exploited workers in the representative body of the city. As a parliamentarian Fernandes was a member of the Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting from Bombay (present-day Mumbai) in 1967 till 2009, mostly representing constituencies from Bihar. He lost the 1971 elections but contested from Muzaffarpur, Bihar in 1977 while still in jail as a Janata Party candidate, and won. He was made minister in the first non-Congress government in India. In 1979, he resigned from Janata Party, joined Charan Singh's breakaway Janata Party (S), and won again from Muzaffarpur in 1980. In 1984 he fought from Bangalore on Janata Party's ticket but lost to Jaffar Sharif of Congress. He lost a bye-poll from Banka in 1985 and again in 1986. In 1989 and 1991, he shifted back to Bihar and won both times from Muzaffarpur as Janata Dal candidate. In 1994, he left Janata Dal after differences with Lalu Prasad Yadav and formed Samata Party which allied with the BJP. In the 1996 and 1998 elections, he won from Nalanda as a Samata Party candidate. Samata Party merged with Janata Dal (United) and he won again from Nalanda in 1999. In 2004 he won from Muzaffarpur. In 2009 he was denied a ticket by his party, but contested from Muzaffarpur as an independent and lost. Later he was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2009 as a JD(U) candidate. The pivotal moment that thrust Fernandes into the limelight was his decision to contest the 1967 general elections. He was offered a party ticket for the Bombay South constituency by the Samyukta Socialist Party (SSP) against the politically more popular S.K. Patil of the Indian National Congress. S.K. Patil was a seasoned politician, with many decades of experience behind him. He was also a powerful minister in the Indira Gandhi cabinet and an unrivalled fundraiser for the undivided Congress party. Nevertheless, Fernandes won against Patil by garnering 48.5% of the votes, thus earning his nickname, 'George, the Giant Killer'. In the early 1970s, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was riding the crest of unprecedented popularity after the liberation of Bangladesh. But soon after, with notorious corruption cases against her, primarily because of the public awareness created by movements like Navnirman agitation in Gujarat and Bihar, her popularity started waning. Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty George, as president of the All India Railwaymen's Federation, organised one of the most notable agitations the country has seen, the railway strike of 1974. This was also the time when Indira Gandhi ordered the well-known Pokhran nuclear explosion in the deserts of Rajasthan. There are political analysts who believe till today that the controversial step was taken by her out of sheer despair, and with the sole intention of breaking the railway strike. The idea was to divert the nation's attention and drum up support for herself. (It is a historical irony that while Pokhran I was prompted by Fernandes's strike, Pokharan II was executed with him as the defence minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government). A politician who long campaigned against the atom bomb was also one of the champions of India's nuclear power. But Fernandes also has a stained and murky past. He will be remembered as the one who justified the Gujarat riots in 2002 and the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his sons in Odisha in 1999. Once upon a time, he was a proponent of Mahatma Gandhi's politics of non-violence, but later turned to believe in politics of violence and organised the 'Baroda Dynamite conspiracy' – a plan to blow up government establishments to protest against the Emergency. When the Emergency was lifted in 1977, Madhu Limaye was offered ministership in Morarji Desai's cabinet but he insisted on making Fernandese a minister to end his trial in the 'Baroda Dynamite Case' so that Fernandes could come out of jail. Fernandes will also be remembered for establishing the organisation 'Friend of Israel' to support Israel against the Palestine movement. His was a life riddled with controversies and accomplishments alike. A towering figure in modern Indian politics, Fernandes was compelled to leave the public eye at the fag end of his political career when his name figured prominently in a corruption case. The scandal caused an uproar and Fernandes had to resign from his post as defence minister in the Vajpayee government. Any chances of returning to political life were quashed with the onset of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. In his last days, Fernandes was living with her once-estranged wife Leila Kabir. He passed away on January 29, 2019, at 88. Qurban Ali is a trilingual journalist who has covered some of modern India's major political, social and economic developments. He has a keen interest in India's freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
The Wire
01-05-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
Madhu Limaye's Pivotal Role in Modern India Must Be Remembered
This article is part of a series by The Wire titled 'The Early Parliamentarians', exploring the lives and work of post-independence MPs who have largely been forgotten. The series looks at the institutions they helped create, the enduring ideas they left behind and the contributions they made to nation building. Madhu Limaye was one of the key personalities of modern India. He played a pivotal role in the freedom movement and later in the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule. He was a committed socialist, a distinguished parliamentarian, a champion of civil liberties, a prolific writer and dedicated to the cause of the common people of the country. He was a dynamic leader of the democratic socialist movement and always stood by his ideology throughout his life. The virtues of simplicity, austerity, a high moral attitude, and Gandhian philosophy of peace and non-violence had a profound impact on him, which he followed and practised. As a result, he earned a place of distinction among the galaxy of leaders. As a socialist stalwart, he guided the socialist movement in the country through various phases. As parliamentarian Limaye was elected to the Lok Sabha four times from 1964 to 1979. He was an encyclopedia of the Indian Constitution, and his speeches in parliament on constitutional matters were milestones. They reflected not only erudition, maturity and understanding but also demonstrated his concern and commitment to the cause of the common man. As a member of the Lok Sabha, Limaye left an imprint as an articulate and responsible parliamentarian. Whenever he rose to speak, members across party lines listened to him with rapt attention. During his privilege motion in the Sixth Lok Sabha, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's membership was terminated when she was found guilty and sent to jail. According to former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, 'Through his exemplary parliamentary work, he proved that the best way to make a mark in the House was by scrupulously following the prescribed rules of procedure and by meaningfully making use of the various parliamentary devices available to the members. As one of his junior-most colleagues in the Fifth Lok Sabha, I had the great and rare opportunity to watch him closely and witness many of his brilliant interventions in the Lok Sabha, with awe and admiration. I shall always cherish his kind guidance and affection, which I had the rare privilege of enjoying.' In Limaye's words own words, 'Parliament was not a substitute for mass and popular movements, but an additional instrument of public service and a platform for airing public grievances. It should be used as an instrument for reflecting the hopes and inspirations of the common man.' He raised important issues before the house by effectively deploying his vast knowledge. He will be remembered as an outstanding parliamentarian who enriched the debates and proceedings of the House in his inimitable style. Limaye was born on May 1, 1922 in Poona, Maharashtra, into a Chitpawan Brahmin family. After completing his school education, Limaye enrolled for higher education at Fergusson College, Poona, in 1937. It was during this period that Limaye became attracted to socialist ideas. He began participating in student movements and became an active member of the All India Students Federation. From then on, Limaye's journey to free humanity from the bondage of colonialism, deprivation and injustice began. Limaye entered politics at a very young age when he joined a May Day procession on his 15th birthday in Poona in 1937. This procession was violently attacked by Hindutvavadi and RSS volunteers. Leaders of this procession, Senapati Bapat and S.M. Joshi, were injured in the attack. This was Limaye's first encounter with the politics of struggle and resistance. After this experience, he came into close contact with Joshi, N.G. Goray and others, becoming deeply involved in the national movement and socialist ideology. In 1939, when the Second World War broke out, he saw this as an opportunity to free the country from colonial rule. In October 1940, Limaye started campaigning against the war and was arrested for his anti-war speeches. He was imprisoned in Dhule jail in Khandesh for nearly one year. He was released in September 1941 and then took up the task of organising the Rashtra Seva Dal and youth camps across Maharashtra. In August 1942, the AICC held its conference in Bombay, where M.K. Gandhi gave the call for 'Quit India'. This was the first time Limaye saw Gandhi up close. Many senior leaders of the Congress party, including Gandhi, were arrested. Limaye went underground with some of his colleagues and played a key role in the underground resistance movement, alongside Achyut Patwardhan and Aruna Asif Ali. He established a printing press and launched Krantikari , a Marathi journal edited by Patwardhan and Joshi. In September 1943, Limaye was arrested along with Joshi. He was detained under the Defence of India Rules (DIR) and held without trial in the jails of Worli, Yerwada and Visapur until July 1945. During his detention, the British government tried its best to extract the secrets of the underground movement from him, but Limaye remained tight-lipped, despite the severe atrocities inflicted on him by the police. Limaye was associated with the Indian National Congress and the Congress Socialist Party for almost a decade, from 1938 to 1948. He attended the CSP's Kanpur Conference in February 1947, where the prefix 'Congress' was removed from the Socialist Party. Limaye was at the forefront of reorganising the Socialist Party. He successfully mobilised trade union workers and brought peasants and youth into the socialist fold. In 1947, he attended the Socialist International's Antwerp (Belgium) conference as the sole delegate of the Indian Socialist Movement. He was elected to the National Executive of the Socialist Party at the Nasik Conference in 1948 and became the Joint Secretary of the Socialist Party at its Patna Conference in 1949. He was the Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Socialist Party and the Asian Socialist Bureau in Rangoon, 1953. Limaye was also elected Joint Secretary of the Praja Socialist Party at its first Conference held in Allahabad, 1953-54. Limaye also participated in the Goa Liberation Movement, launched in 1946 by his mentor, Rammanohar Lohia. A staunch critic of colonialism, Limaye led a mass Satyagraha in 1955 and entered Goa. At Pedne, the Portuguese police violently attacked the satyagrahis, resulting in deaths and widespread injuries. Limaye was severely beaten and kept in police custody for five months. In December 1955, the Portuguese Military Tribunal sentenced him to 12 years in prison, but he neither offered a defence nor appealed the heavy sentence. He later wrote, 'It was in Goa that I realised how profoundly Gandhiji had transformed my life, how deeply he had shaped my personality and will.' During the Goa Liberation Movement, Limaye spent over 19 months in Portuguese captivity. While in prison, he wrote a book titled Goa Liberation Movement and Madhu Limaye as a prison diary. The book was published in 1996 on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the launch of the Goa movement in 1946. After his release from Portuguese custody in 1957, he continued to mobilise the masses and sought support from various sections of society, urging the Government of India to take firm steps toward the liberation of Goa. Following the mass Satyagraha, the Government of India was compelled to take military action, and Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule in December 1961, becoming an integral part of India. As one of the most dynamic leaders of the Socialist Movement, Limaye worked tirelessly to translate socialist ideals into the national ethos. His contribution to shaping the destiny of modern India was truly immense. Limaye was elected chairman of the Socialist Party at its National Conference held at Sherghati (Gaya) in April 1958. During his chairmanship, great efforts were made to strengthen the organidation through specific policies and concrete action plans. His belief in socialism was not dogmatic or doctrinaire; it was a way of life. To him, unless the hierarchical social order was destroyed, social justice would remain a distant dream for a large section of society. Limaye played a vital role at the Benaras Conference in 1959, where, under his chairmanship, the Socialist Party adopted a resolution on providing special opportunities for the backward sections of society. After the merger of the SP-PSP in 1964, he became the Chairman of the newly formed Samyukta Socialist Party's Parliamentary Board in 1967 and was the Leader of the Samyukta Socialist Party in the Fourth Lok Sabha in 1967. Democratic values With a firm belief in democracy and democratic values, Limaye fought relentlessly to protect parliamentary sovereignty. Through his writings, speeches and actions, he sought to preserve democratic heritage in numerous ways. Firmly committed to healthy democratic ethos and conventions, he always stood by his principles and never compromised his values, even during turbulent political times. His protest from jail against the extension of the term of the Fifth Lok Sabha bears testimony to this. For his commendable contribution to the freedom movement, Limaye was conferred with honours and offered a pension by the Government of India. However, he did not accept the pension, nor had he accepted the pension scheme provided to members of parliament. As a committed socialist, Limaye demonstrated the spirit of selfless sacrifice. Limaye was a prolific writer. He wrote more than 100 books in English, Hindi and Marathi and contributed over 1,000 articles in various periodicals, journals, and newspapers. Limaye married Professor Champa Gupte on May 15, 1952. She proved to be a great source of inspiration and support to him, both in his personal and public life. He passed away on 8th January 1995 in New Delhi at the age of 72, after a brief illness. Qurban Ali is a trilingual journalist who has covered some of modern India's major political, social and economic developments. He has keenly followed India's freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country. He can be contacted at qurban100@
