The isolation of George Fernandes

The party refused him a ticket pointing out that his “poor health” will not permit him to take the rigours of contesting an election. George refused to buy it and shot back,“I am perfectly fine.” The party tried to placate him,him saying it would send him to the Rajya Sabha. George replied: “Socialists don’t prefer to go to the Rajya Sabha.”

George,like always,has put his foes and friends in a tough spot by his decision to contest. They still remember how his statements over China as the defence minister had embarrassed the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. This time,he has left his political disciple,Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,in a piquant situation.

For Kumar’s detractors,however,George has turned into a rallying point. Angry over being denied party tickets,some senior leaders are using the “injustice” inflicted on a leader of George’s stature to take on Kumar. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls,George’s rebellion is proving to be a big irritant in Kumar’s path of taking on his political rivals — Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan.

It’s an irony of fate that George is using words like “autocrat” and “dictator” for Kumar — the leader he had propped to fight ‘dictator’ Lalu in Bihar. Way back in 1994,George was the key architect behind projecting backward leader Nitish Kumar against Lalu. He,along with Kumar and some others,broke out of the erstwhile Janata Dal and formed the Samata Party.

Unfortunately,however,by the time George’s aim to unseat Lalu was realised in 2005,his relations with his political disciple had soured. Kumar became the CM and it was the beginning of the downfall of the veteran leader. George was cleverly ousted from the post of JD(U) president. Kumar,whose control over the party was complete by then,fielded Sharad Yadav against him and urged George not to contest. Belligerent George went ahead and suffered an ignominious defeat.

The angry leader,however,did not take it lying down. Egged on by rebels in the party he tried to take on Kumar by castigating his government for failing to come up to the expectations of the masses. But age and ailment had gripped him by then and he was unable to raise an opposition similar to the one he had raised against Lalu.

Looking back,George’s story is a poignant tale of the rise and fall of a political stalwart. George,a Christian from Karnataka,seems like a very unlikely leader in the caste ridden political arena of Bihar. However,he was nothing less than a hero for the Bihari electorate ever since he contested the polls from prison in Muzaffarpur in 1977. George was arrested during the Emergency and put in Muzaffarpur jail. Slogans of “Jail ka phatak tootega,George Fernandes chhootega” (prison gates will break and George Fernandes will be free) used to rent the election campaign and the fiery leader won the polls from behind the bars. Since then George and Bihar became inseparable and the state has been electing him to the Lok Sabha.

Now that the very leaders who used to woo him with invitations to contest from Bihar are urging him not to contest,he is compelled to issue an appeal to the nation to join him in the fight to save democracy,pointing out,“Do you insult,expel and tarnish a senior member of the family in your home?”