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George Fernandes is a well known labour leader and politician from Bejai, Mangaluru. Justice M.N. Venkatachalaiah, Former Chief Justice of India, has consented to be the Patron- in-Chief of this significant event.
George Fernandes can be called the ’son of the soil’ in every sense. The Konkan Railway is one of George’s greatest achievements during his eleven-month tenure as Railway Minister in 1989. Thanks to his work Mumbai became more accessible from Mangaluru.
George Fernandes has been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and has been bed ridden for about a decade now. A person of his stature must be conferred with’ Bharat Ratna’ award. It is a rather special occasion and an opportunity to show our gratitude for all the selfless services he rendered to the cause of workers in the industrial sector, Government institutions, city corporations, railways, public sector industries and to the public at large.
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HMKP plans to release a souvenir highlighting some of his outstanding achievements during his active public life.
Who is George Fernandes?
George Fernandes, was born on June 3, 1930 at Bejai, Mangaluru. George is eldest among six children; his siblings are Lawrence, Michael, Paul, Aloysius, and Richard. George speaks ten languages including Konkani, his mother tongue. He is extremely fluent in Hindi and English.
He is one of the “greatest and bravest” fighters for civil rights during the Emergency era. His friends, supporters and public have pitched for awarding the Bharat Ratna to the veteran socialist leader for the selfless public service he rendered.
He graduated from Aloysius College, Mangaluru, in the year 1946. In 1948 he joined the Socialist Party and got involved with the trade union movement. He later moved to Mumbai in the early 50s where he organized trade unions for several types of workers .He served as President of the All-India Railway Men’s Federation.
In the Lok Sabha elections of 1967, he managed to defeat his opponent S.K. Patil of Congress, from Bombay South earning him the title of ‘George the Giant Killer’.
He went underground for a full year after the declaration of Emergency on June 25th 1975. He later got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977 from Muzafarpur in Bihar with a massive margin, while still in Tihar jail, New Delhi.
He has rendered public service as Union Minister of Industries, Railways and Defence. He played a major role in doing away with the legal requirement of Probate of Will for the Christians in India in the year 2002.
A huge collection of Books, writings, documentation and so on numbering more than 4000 thousand pieces were donated to the St. Aloysius College library Mangaluru on March 11, 2013 and a special section was created in his name. George and his family members decided to donate the huge library which has many titles in different languages. The collection in particular includes, “Record of Indian Parliamentary Proceedings”.