Former prime minister Manmohan Singh with (R-L) BJP senior leader LK Advani, JDU leader KC Tyagi, SAD leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Union leader Ram Vilas Paswan, Bihar Chief Minis...
Sean Fernandes carries the mortal remains son of his father, former defence minister George Fernandes for final rites, at Prithviraj Road Graveyard in New Delhi.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pays tribute to former defence minister and veteran socialist George Fernandes in New Delhi.
Union minister and LJP President Ram Vilas Paswan along with his son and party MP Chirag Paswan pay their last respects to the former defence minister and veteran socialist George ...
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar intercats with former defence minister and veteran socialist George Fernandes' estranged wife Leila Kabir, at his residence in New Delhi. Fernande...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying tributes to the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, in New Delhi.
Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and senior leader Sharad Yadav pay their last respects to the former defence minister and veteran socialist George Fernandes, at his residence in Ne...
In this Nov 18, 2001 file photo the then defence minister George Fernandes interacts with the jawans at Gulab outpost during his visit to Siachen.
In this Dec 30, 2004 file photo the then JD (U) President George Fernandes briefs the media after visiting the Tsunami affected areas, in New Delhi.
In this Aug 1, 2003 file photo the then defence minister George Fernandes is seen inside the cockpit of an MiG-21 after completing a sortie, at Ambala Air Force Station.
In this Nov 18, 2001 file photo the then defence minister George Fernandes takes a view through a heavy machine gun, seized from the Pakistan army in Kargil. Veteran socialist Geor...
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pays tribute to former union defence minister George Fernandes, in Patna. Fernandes, who was the defence minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee gove...
George Fernandes was jailed during the 1975 Emergency
File photo of Former Defence Minister George Fernandes passed away at the age of 88, in New Delhi on Tuesday morning, Jan 29, 2019.
File photo of Former Defence Minister George Fernandes passed away at the age of 88, in New Delhi on Tuesday morning, Jan 29, 2019.
In this file photo, Former defense minister George Fernandes receives a wooden plaque from the Dalai Lama during a function organized to felicitate him in Bangalore.
File photo of NDA convener and former Defence Minister George Fernandes speaks during a demonstration in New Delhi. The demonstration was against the ruling United Progressive Alli...
In this file photo, JD (U) leader and NDA Convenor George Fernandes and BJP President L.K Advani at a BJP's "Bihar Bachao' rally in Patna.
In this file photo, Defence Minister George Fernandes speaks to the press as he steps down from a train on his arrival at Patna on Jan 14, 2004. Fernandes suffered minor injuries i...
In this file photo, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, George Fernandes and Mamata Banerjee look on during a meeting of the NDA in New Delhi.
A puny news item, tucked in an inside page, concerning the outcome of the Lok Sabha poll in a particular Bihar constituency, releases a floodgate of memories for Ashok Mitra, writing in the Telegraph:
...a brash young man — he too hailing from South Canara — arrived in Bombay in search of a future. He did not do very well in the examinations. Still, he was a voracious reader and had gulped down gallons of socialist literature. His natural gift of the gab apart, he had an astounding flair for picking up languages. Within a year of his arrival in Bombay, he was heard haranguing assorted crowds, consisting mostly of the working class, in Kannada, Tulu, Konkani, Marathi, Hindustani, Gujarati and English. The young man, George Fernandes, was gathered in by Placid D’Mello, who taught him the rudiments of trade union grammar. George was a fast learner. D’Mello died within a couple of years. By then George had not only taken charge of Bombay’s dockside, he was also eyeing other areas where his skills as an eyeball-to-eyeball negotiator could be expected to fetch dividends. The message spread across the metropolitan city: here was a whiz-kid who was going to usher in a paradise of bargaining benefits to the workers.
Read the full piece at the Telegraph
