George Fernandes Politician

George Mathew Fernandes (born 3 June 1930) 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. In 1949 he moved to Bombay, where he joined the socialist trade union movement. Becoming 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 of 1975, while challenging Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for imposing a state of emergency, but in 1976 he was arrested and tried in the infamous Baroda dynamite case.In 1977, after the Emergency had been lifted, Fernandez won the Muzaffarpur seat in Bihar and was appointed as Union Minister for Industries. During his tenure as union minister, he ordered American multinationals IBM and Coca Cola to leave the country, due to investment violations. He was the driving force behind the Konkan Railway project during his tenure as railway minister from 1989 to 1990. He was a defence minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government (1998–2004), when the Kargil War broke out between India and Pakistan, and India conducted its nuclear tests at Pokhran. A veteran socialist, Fernandes has been dogged by various controversies, including the Barak Missile scandal and the Tehelka affair.

Personal facts

Birth date	June 03, 1930
Birth place	India , Karnataka , Mangalore , South Canara , British Raj
Religion	Catholic Church
Residence	India , Karnataka , Bangalore

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Office holder

office	Minister of Defence Minister of Railways
party	Janata Dal (United)
prime minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee V. P. Singh
region	Bihar Nalanda (Lok Sabha constituency) Muzaffarpur (Lok Sabha constituency)
successor	Pranab Mukherjee Nitish Kumar Jaswant Singh Janeshwar Mishra Jainarain Prasad Nishad Laliteshwar Prasad Shahi