George Fernandes

Who is George Fernandes?

George Fernandes is a former Indian trade unionist, politician, journalist, agriculturist, and member of Rajya Sabha from Bihar. He was a key member of the Janata Dal, and is the founder of the Samata Party. He has held several ministerial portfolios including communications, industry, railways, and defence, and was the only Christian minister in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet.

A native of Mangalore, Fernandes was sent to Bangalore in 1946 to be trained as a priest. He moved to Bombay in 1949, and joined the socialist trade union movement. As a fiery trade union leader, Fernandes organised many strikes and bandhs in Bombay in the 1950s and 1960s. The most notable agitation he organised was the 1974 Railway strike, when he was President of the All India Railwaymen's Federation. Fernandes went underground during the Emergency era, as he took on Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for imposing a state of emergency, but was arrested in 1976, and tried in the infamous Baroda dynamite case.

After Emergency was lifted, he won the Muzaffarpur seat in Bihar in 1977, and was appointed the Union Minister for Industries.