Review of The Life and Times of George Fernandes: Personal and Political

The late socialist leader and former Union minister George Fernandes had a storied career almost mirroring India’s modern political history. To Rahul Ramagundam The Life and Times of George Fernandeztherefore, it is of interest not only from the perspective of one man’s life and political path, but also the associated flows of events and ideology.

Mangalore-born Fernandes, who entered politics in Bombay as a trade union leader and was a Member of Parliament from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, straddled India geographically. He also traversed the ideological spectrum – his politics may have been largely socialist, but he was also compatible with the BJP as an ally for many years.

The biography takes a comprehensive look at the life and also the “times” in which he lived, as the title suggests. There are fascinating sections on the various splits and mergers that have plagued socialist parties since Ram Manohar Lohia’s time, which provide important context for the politics of the 1960s and 1970s.

A picture of defiance

It was Fernandes who was the iconic image of defiance when he was photographed in chains during the Emergency, and he gained fame as the man who banned Coca-Cola when he was industry minister in the 1970s, but what intrigued most people , is his alliance with the BJP and the ease with which he became part of the National Democratic Alliance, becoming the alliance’s chairman as well.

In interviews, Fernandes explained his alliance as part of his old plan and policy against the Congress, though many fellow travelers took issue with the extrapolation of that policy landing at the door of the Sangh Parivar. Ramagundam says anti-Congressism is dictated in part “by a personal history of suffering at the hands of various governments”. He was “fixated on both the Congress and its seemingly invulnerable dynasty”. For Fernandez, the personal became political.

After all, Fernandes became the center of controversy, of claims against him by his family and his long-time companion and political partner Jaya Jaitley, about whom Ramagundam has critical words. For those who want to know how a political path could have been made by the Congress in the years when it was the dominant political force, the biography is instructive. There are references to interesting documents, including documents belonging to Fernandes (called by the author the George archive) and a section of documents belonging to socialist leader Madhu Limaye deposited in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, which were not sorted and accessed inexplicably withdrawn after a few days.

The abundant material illustrates the fact that Fernández’s political beliefs were born not only of intellectual reflection but also as an experiment with the roles he occupied in public life and the life he lived.

The Life and Times of George Fernandez; Rahul Ramagundam, Allen Lane, ₹799.

nistula.hebbar@thehindu.co.in