by Gulamhusein A Abba
This old photo from the past is of the famous, ambitious, shrewd George
Fernandes who started as a petty trade unionist and jockeyed himself into
becoming a Union minister, holding the post of Defence Minister and later
holding several other ministerial portfolios, including communications,
industry and railways.
I remember three incidents that propelled him to fame. I was
there at the time!
The first came in 1967. In the general elections held that
year. the Samyukta Socialist Party offered him a party ticket for the Bombay
South constituency. Standing against him was the formidable S.K.Patil, a
seasoned politician. To everyone’s surprise, George won! This win earned him
the title of “George the Giantkiller”
His second notable triumph came just seven years later. As
President of the All India Railwaymen's Federation, he organized the All India
Railway strike of 1974,
Till now George had organized several Bombay Bandhs (Bombay
Shutdowns) to press his union demands and succeeded in shutting down parts of
Bombay.
But this was big. Railways are the arteries of the nation.
Shutting them down would shut down the whole nation. And that is what it did.
George Fernandes lay down on the tracks of the railways to
prevent key trains from moving forward. He was arrested and the picture here is
of him being led away from a railway station after his arrest.
That made him a man to be reckoned with.
A year later Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of
India, declared a state of emergency. The constitution was suspended and along
with it all fundamental rights. Indira ruled through edicts.
The nation was outraged. Indira, who was adored till then,
fell out ot favor. Political dissidents, trade unionists, newspaper reporters,
opposition leaders vehemently opposed the emergency.
.One of the things Indira did was to order the arrest of all
trade union leaders Most of them, along with other protestors, were arrested and jailed. An arrest warrant
was issued against George Feranandes also but he went underground to avoid
arrest
Ultimately he was arrested in 1975 in Calcutta on charges of
smuggling dynamite to blow up government establishments in protest against the
imposition of emergency. This came to be known as the Baroda Dynamite Case.
By now George was no longer just a Bombay leader. He had
become a well known figure not only nationwide but also internationally.
After his arrest, Amnesty International members cabled to
the Government of India to give him access to a lawyer and ensure that he was
physically protected. According to various reports, three world leaders from
Germany, Norway, and Austria cabled Indira Gandhi and cautioned her against
harming Fernandes.
The emergency was lifted in 1977. Fresh general elections
were held in India. The Congress Party, led by Indira Gandhi, suffered a defeat
at the hands of the Janata Party, a coalition created in 1977 out of several
small parties that opposed Gandhi's Emergency era, and Morarji Desai became the
first non-Congress Prime Minister of India, breaking the Nehru dynasty’s hold
on power.
Fernandes was still in jail when the Janata Party under
Morarji Desai came to power. However, he had contested from the jail and won
the Muzaffarpur seat in Bihar by an overwhelming majority and became an elected
member of Parliament.
NOW PAY ATTENTION. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
After he won the Muzaffarpur seat the defence counsel moved,
for the ninth time, a bail application on behalf of Gerorge Fernandes. Though
this court, and higher courts, had repeatedly rejected the plea for bail made
by George Fernandes and his 24 co-accused, this time it was accepted.
TWO DAYS LATER, THE PROSECUTION COUNSEL ASKED THE COURT THAT
IN "PUBLIC INTEREST AND CHANGED CIRCUMSTANCES CHARGES AGAINST THE ACCUSED
BE DROPPED."
No satisfactory explanation was given for the withdrawal of
the case..Those who believed in the rule of law (I among them) were shocked.
As
Chairman of the Rule of Law Committee I raised my voice against the withdrawal.
I had an opportunity to ask Morarji Desai personally about this. He explained,
in confidence (and I am revealing this in public for the firt time) that the
coalition party, on the support of which the government relied to hold power,
threatened to withdraw its support if the case was not withdrawn. Morarrji
pointed out that if this had happened, the government would have fallen and
another election held and, in all probability, Indira would come to power
again. That would have been disastrous for the country
In other words, the government was blackmailed into withdrawing the
case.
I went on claiming that a criminal case having been filed,
it was for the courts to decide whether the accused were innocent or guilty and
the executive department had no right to intervene and withdraw the case.
