Ex-defence minister passes away at 88

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE:  NEW DELHI:    Former Defence Minister George Fernandes passed away today at the age of 88. The former minister was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and had been keeping unwell for some time. As a founder of Samata Party, he rose to popularity as an anti-Emergency crusader.

A veteran Parliamentarian who was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1967, George served several times as a Union Cabinet Minister, holding portfolios such as communications, industry, and railways, besides defence.

Born in Mangaluru on June 3, 1930, George was elected nine times to the Lok Sabha.He had served as defence minister, under then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1998 to 2004.

Fernandes had to step down from his post in 2004 after reports of the coffin scam. However, his name was cleared by two commissions later. He had also served as a minister in Morarji Deai government from 1977 to 1980. A former member of Rajya Sabha from Bihar, he held several portfolios including railways, defence, industry and communication.

During his tenure as defence minister between 1998–2004, the Kargil war broke out in 1999. There was also criticism of India’s intelligence agencies after the intrusion, however, he stood by them and refused to acknowledge their failure. It was during his time as India’s defence minister that India had conducted Pokhran tests in 1998.

George and others were charged with smuggling dynamite in an alleged plot to blow up railway tracks and government buildings in the Baroda Dynamite Case. He was still in prison when he won in Muzaffarpur in the 1977 general election.

Arrested during the Emergency, George Fernandes was the industries minister in the first non-Congress government that came to power after the Janata Party defeated Indira Gandhi — whom Fernandes once called a “congenital liar”.