King George of Mumbai

Mumbai: On just his one call, he had the powers to bring the entire financial capital of the country to a grinding halt. Mumbai, a city that never stops, used to come to standstill on his directives. Such was the charisma and command George Fernandes possessed at the peak of his career as a trade union leader.

Though he was born in Mangalore, it was Mumbai, which catapulted Mr Fernandes to prominence at the national politics. From here, he burst into the limelight when as a firebrand trade unionist he organised a railway strike. The city also earned him the title of a ‘giant killer’, who defeated Congress stalwart S.K. Patil in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections.

Mr Fernandes was one of the very few politicians, who was truly considered as a Lokneta, a people’s leader. During his heydays, he had a huge impact on the social and political happenings of the country. The externment of the Union leader Placid D’Mello from Mumbai paved the way for Mr Fernandes to enter the labour movement. Mr D’Mello’s decision to bring him into the Union gave birth to country’s most popular Union leader.

It was the railway strike in 1974, which saw Mr Fernandes emerge as a prominent leader on the national stage. Before that, he led a successful municipal workers’ strike in Mumbai. He was also instrumental in ensuring the daily functioning of the Mumbai municipal corporation be carried out in Marathi and not in English.

It is believed that the charismatic Union leader’s character in the Marathi film “Sinh-asan”, based on journalist Arun Sadhu’s two po-litical novels, was insp-ired by Mr Fernandes.

Riding on the strong labour movement in the industrial sector, civic body and small businesses known as ‘gumasta’, Mr Fernandes stood up for the workers of the civic body, BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport) undertaking and gumasta workers and fought for their rights. All major Unions of the civic body, BEST and small businesses in Mumbai were set up by George Fernandes. It was the labour support, which helped him to win in the 1967 Lok Sabha polls.

In the Lok Sabha polls, Mr Fernandes caused a huge upset when he defeated S.K. Patil, who was then called as the ‘uncrowned king of Mumbai,’ from the Mumbai South seat. During the campaign, he painted the walls with a simple message: Patil can be defeated.

Mr Fernandes had also shared a close relationship with Shiv Sena sup-remo late Bal Thackeray. He was among the very few to call the Sena pat-riarch ‘Bal’. The former defence minister passed away at the age of 88 in Delhi on Tuesday following a prolonged illness.