George Fernandes

I have chosen George Fernandes as my second unsung hero for multiple reasons. It would be clear why i consider him as a hero in the first place, or at all, in the following passage.

We are in a media-driven era where media houses like NDTV and 'The Hindu' decide for us who should be the Heroes and who should be damned as villians. Naturally if we go by NDTV's judgement, George Fernandes will be India's biggest villian after Narendra Modi. And by the same judgement we should consider Sonia Gandhi as India's greatest person since after all NDTV decided that she was the -"Indian" of the year.

But leaving aside for the time being what Prannoy Roy wants us to believe or what Vinod Mehta feels about George Fernandes or for that matter all the (pseudo) social-fashionable-intellectual-liberals combined have an opinion about Fernandes, let's just focus on the individual himself. Let us analyse his journey from a rebel-bomb-throwing-socialist to being the defense minister of India.

Fernandes was born in a poor Christian family in Karnataka. There are stories of how he was a born rebel and how at some point of time he even went against the Church's priest. Stories of how he was responsible for orchestrating India's most devastating Railway strike and how he was detained by the Indira Gandhi government for carrying explosives. How he went underground during the Emergency and how he started a campaign against Coca-Cola.

All these legends about Fernandes that occured when my generation was not even born, tell us something about this person. It tells us about Fernandes's passion and about his convictions. That he is fearless in his acts. Some may call it foolish or non-pragmatic but Fernandes has always been called that. Specially by people sipping juice on their arm-chairs in air-conditioned rooms.

When George Fernandes, a christian by birth, joined hands with the "right-wing","communal" BJP many were surprised. Specially the NDTV kinds who always painted BJP as a pervert/vulgur/fundamentalist outfit. NDTV studios became uncomfortable with the idea of the two joining hands. NDTV ensured that whatever came out from George Fernandes mouth would be twisted out of context and thus Fernandes over the period of time was labelled "controversial". And off course the [Congress sponsored] Tehelka "scandal" ensured the taint forever.

Notwithstanding NDTV's prejudices, Indian Arm Forces had after a long gap got a man of substance who they could count on. Fernandes , during the Kargil war, personally went to the battlefield and met the soldiers, a gesture that won him iconic status in the hearts of jawans. He's arguably the most popular defense minister till date. It's a testimony of his integrity and honesty that Vajpayee continued to restore faith in him even after the Tehelka episode. His integrity was never in doubt amongst the soldiers, and i guess in the end that is what mattered.

Facing relentless onslaught by the media outside the parliament and gross humiliation by Congress and Marxists inside the parliament , George continued doing his work with unaltered passion. He never used short cuts to gain favours with the media. Like Modi he was on media's hotlist all the time. But he woudn't budge. Not an inch. By completing his full term and quite successfully at that he single handedly scored a major moral victory over his adversaries.

Today Mr. Fernandes is keeping the fight against the monarchy [read Gandhi family] on. The flame is burning and he is not stopping at 76. Even at this age his passion and energy can give younger politicians a run for their money.
Fernandes was instrumental in dislodging Lalu from Bihar. And if not for anything the people of India owe him big for this effort of his.

The media created "coffin scandal" and the Tehelka damaged his reputation beyond redemption. But people of conviction and strong will power do not give up. They keep on going. And GF continued.

I always believe in a simple thumb rule. If Communists hate something than it must be good for the country. They hate privatisation. They hate economic reforms. They hate America. They hate Indian army. They hate Infosys/Wipro/TCS. They hate IT boom and they hate that Indian government is giving tax benefits to middle class.

And yes. They hate George Fernandes.

Sadly like Narsimha Rao, George Fernandes won't have many positive tributes written about him, since most of the media commentators follow [blindly] the unwritten diktats of NDTV et al. But that is what makes these two people so special. Just because Indian media houses painted a sad picture of these two men, I personally would do my own two cents of "rebellion", if you will. And yes, flow against the conventional wisdom.

George Fernandes is not the most conventional hero one can present to any audience. But ask an Army men what he meant and you'd be surprised. And that was what his job was. He was responsible towards the army men. And that job, he performed like no one.Like a true Hero.

References - 1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1223625.stm
2] http://siafdu.tripod.com/fernandes.html