George Fernandes- Political R.I.P?

J. Chacko

Watching George Fernandes in Devil’s Advocate on CNN-IBN on the 17^th September was quite a sad thing.  Age has caught up with this sharp-tongued and quick-witted fire-brand who was seen gasping for words.  On more than one occasions his answers were not in words but in nods or shaking of the head.  What a fall for a man whose sharp tongue and capacity for retort and repartee was commended even by the redoubtable acerbic Kushwant Singh.

In a political life spanning over 50 years, Fernandes has seen a cyclical series of spectacular rises and abysmal falls in his career.  This run-away from a Catholic Seminary in Karnataka landed up in Mumbai sometime in 1949 and according to his own admission, spent the initial years on the foot paths of this City, like its numerous other hapless inhabitants even today. In about 10 years time he was a trade union leader with a sizeable following and by early sixties he was a mighty force to reckon with in this MetroCity. Such was his clout that he could paralyse the City by his strikes and bandhs.

He made a spectacular entry into the national scene by achieving what was considered impossible those days- defeating the Congress strong man S.K Patil in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections in Mumbai.  Up to this point,  the political career of Fernandes was virtually proceeding in a vertical straight line though he had to undergo a lot of personal sufferings like struggle for survival, brutal police action, imprisonment etc. etc.

After the magnificent debut in 1967, the Parliamentary fortunes of Fernandes had taken a curious turn.  In the very next 1971 Lok Sabha elections, he not only lost his Mumbai seat where he achieved the impossible in 1967, but even lost his security deposit.  In the next Lok Sabha elections in 1977 he won the Muzafarpur seat in Bihar with a thumping majority, fighting it from behind the bars.  His majority was the second highest in the country.  By the time of the next Lok Sabha elections in 1980, he could not venture to fight from Muzafarpur, moved over to Bangalore and lost the elections.  Thereafter, he went been back to Muzafarpur in the next elections and won.  From then on he has managed to win from Bihar till the last elections.

These ups and downs were also seen in his career outside the Parliament.  The “Giant Killer”, as he was known after defeating S K Patil in 1967, was in wilderness after his defeat in 1971 and then came the offer to lead the Railway Unions.  He made a stunning come back into the centre-stage as the leader who led the 1974 Railway Strike which is supposed to be biggest ever strike held in the world.  After this came the Emergency, the underground Baroda Dynamite case and the incarceration.  The countless splits, reunions, break-ups, patch-ups in his Socialist clan have also seen him up and down for the last twenty years.  The worse was the Tehelka episode which, he, in his inimitable style dismissed as “motivated rubbish” which in fact it was.  Some Johnnies went around making imaginary petitions and offering money for helping them.  Some gullible fellows collected some cash.  Otherwise, no favour was shown to anyone, no contract was awarded and no public money was siphoned off.  Yet this expose was assailed as the biggest scam India had known!  As and when historians judge Thehelka episode objectively, it would find place as the equivalent of the Capt. Dreyfus Case in France in the late 19^th century when this Jewish Army Officer was pilloried, harassed and punished with exile for selling defence secrets to Germany.  After some years the real culprit was caught and Dreyfus, having been found totally innocent of any wrong doing, was reinstated in the Army and fought for France in the First World War.

Fernandes is again in one of these cyclical low points- his own Samata Party has virtually disowned him, his maneuverability for a political space is badly mauled and he is virtually in a cul-de-sac.  What guess can one make of his political future?  The present political situation in the country is peculiar.  Politics has now become the past time of the bystanders.  Leaders would like to watch from the sidelines and not take a stand on any matter.  Never a bystander, Fernandes had always liked to be in the thick of things, a quality which has brought him a lot of flak but hardly any praise.  He would not therefore fit in anywhere among the present bystanders.  Because of this nature of politics, there are no confrontations also, at least on the surface, so much so one would wonder whether we have reached the “End of History” as far as politics in India is concerned.  This is also disadvantageous to Fernandes as he is a born fighter and fighters can flourish only in confrontations.  So is it the end of the road for him?  It is difficult to answer this since the subject is the enigmatic Fernandes.  After every fall in the past he has risen like a phoenix and it may still happen.  One can only say, considering his age, if he rises again, it would be his last hurrah.

Among the Indian leaders Fernandes would be the only one till now to leave a number of memorable original lines for posterity.  Capacity to come out with quotable quotes is one attribute of a leader and he is peerless here.  Given below are some which would far outlive him.

On Indira Gandhi- “Congenital liar”.  “All dictators are congenital liars, but Madam, you excel them all!”

On Sanjay Gandhi- “The third generation upstart hailed as the Rising Son.”

On Bansi Lal- “Faceless hack”

Blitz Weekly- “Bombay Rag”

On V.P. Singh- “If there is no V.P. Singh we have to invent one.”

Rajiv Gandhi ridiculed the coalition United Front Government of V.P. Singh as “United Affront” and the repartee of Fernandes- “If it can work in his mother-in-law’s country, it can work in his mother’s country also”

On the Secular vs. non-Secular claptrap-

“There are two types of people in this country; those who are normal and those who are secular.”