George Fernandes: The flame that raged during its time
There was a time when people who fought hard in the movements came into the parliament or assemblies. During the 80s, both houses of the Parliament had names such as S A Dange, A K Gopalan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Bhupesh Gupta, Prof Hiren Mukherjee, Madhu Limaye and other stalwarts. George Fernandes who died on Tuesday was also one such blaze of fire. Having risen out of people's movement to the heights of a union minister, George today is just a fond yet painful memory.
Born in 1930 at Bejai in Mangaluru, George’s parents had decided that their son would be a Pastor. But George created his own path, by becoming an activist in socialist movement, and even as a central minister later in his life. Having come in contact with socialist leader Ammembala Balappa during his days as a student in St Aloysius College in Mangalore, George had great command on Kannada, Konkani, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam and Urdu. Like most of coastal Kannadigas, George went to Mumbai to earn a living and came in contact with labour activist at ports, Demello. He was inducted into the labour movement by Demello and after that George never looked back.
His initiation into socialism was through Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. George fought Lok Sabha elections and defeated the undefeatable S K Patil in 1967. He organized the railway labourers in 1974 and went on a strike to shake the Indira Gandhi government. The then PM Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in 1975. George went underground then and was subsequently arrested. He was elected to Lok Sabha even when he was jailed. He waged a war against companies like Coca Cola and others when he became the minister for industries in Morarji Desai cabinet in 1977, the first ever non-Congress government in independent India.
The Kannadigas especially those in coastal Karnataka can never forget George Fernandes because he was instrumental in ensuring the Konkan Railway track came into existence. This was a long pending demand of the people of this region. Because before this came into being, people had to travel 48 hours in bus if they had to go to Mumbai. The travel time reduced drastically with this. He was a very pro-people person and a core activist. His last days were rather very painful.
The anti-Congress politics of Ram Manohar Lohia brought George to the doorstep of BJP. The socialist party lost its existence after the emergency and was merged with Janata Party. Socialists lost their base. But the RSS maintained its independent identity and created Bharatiya Janata Party. George remained in the old Janata Party. He then created Samata Party after th split with the Janata Party. But that didn’t have a strong base. Finally, having compromised with his ideals, George entered into a coalition with the BJP. He was forced to defend Modi in the Gujarat massacre in the parliament. His political career was marred with coffin controversy when he was the defence minister.
It’s not easy for a young boy who washed utensils in Mumbai hotels to be elected from the same mega city to represent in Lok Sabha. But his politics lost track later. Leaders such as Lalu, Mulayam and Nitish Kumar entered the scene after Mandal Report was implemented. They didn’t need George amidst them. Being a minority, George didn’t have his own vote bank too. Then the dependency on BJP became inevitable. This clouded his political career which was created with such care and clarity.
It wouldn’t be too inappropriate of one called George a tragic hero of Indian politics. He dreamt of socialism and then took to ideals that was totally contrast to his life. He spent his days in recluse since Alzheimers had taken control of his faculties. No one would even remember George a few years later. A man has both pluses and minuses in his life. George had more pluses. How can anybody forget a hero who rose from nothing and grew to be a towering figure in Indian politics? His departure is truly a loss for the labour movement in India.
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Rishabh Pant's troubles continue as Punjab Kings push LSG towards exit door
Dharamsala, May 4 (PTI): Rishabh Pant lost the grip on his bat and the match simultaneously as Punjab Kings rode on heroics from the two 'Singhs' -- Prabhsimran and Arshdeep -- to literally push Lucknow Super Giants to the brink of elimination with a 37-run win in an IPL match here on Sunday.
It was Prabhsimran's 48-ball 91 that formed the cornerstone of Punjab Kings' unassailable 236 for 5 and any hopes of a remarkable chase was nipped in the bud by Arshdeep's (3/16 in 4 overs) now familiar Powerplay spell which summarily destroyed the opposition top-order.
This time, he got the three top run getters -- Mitchell Marsh (0), Aiden Markram (13) and the ever-dangerous Nicholas Pooran (6) -- to swing the match decisively in Punjab's favour. Ayush Badoni's (74 off 40 balls) effort was a good one albeit it came for a losing cause.
LSG were finally restricted to 199 for 7 in 20 overs and even if they win their last three games and get to 16 points from 14 games, their net run-rate can make things difficult for them.
Punjab Kings are now placed second with 15 points from 11 games and one more win could possibly clinch a place in top four for them.
But what is becoming an eyesore is LSG's Rs 27 crore worth skipper Pant's inexplicable approach which has fetched him a dismal 128 runs in 11 innings at a sub-100 strike-rate (99.22).
On the day, he scored 18 off 17 balls and that he is completely out of sync was evident in the manner he tried to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at an Azmatullah Omarzai delivery. There was no control in his shot as the bat took off on parabolic curve towards square leg and the ball went towards deep point.
Pant's misery was a testimony of LSG's wretched campaign that was lost at the auction table when the owner decided to go with a sub-standard bowling attack based on a half-fit talented pacer Mayank Yadav.
Mayank has already lost at least 10-15 yards of pace post rehabilitation under the watch of Nitin Patel at the National Cricket Academy.
On Sunday, he went for 60 runs off four overs with half a dozen of sixes struck off his bowling.
The pint-sized Prabhsimran packed a mean punch in his strokes as he blasted his way to a 48-ball 91 with the help of six fours and seven sixes.
The Punjab keeper-batter should have got his second IPL hundred but an ambitious switch hit off Digvesh Rathi saw him head back to the pavilion, nine runs short of what would have been a deserving milestone.
Towards the end, Shashank Singh scored 33 off 15 balls to take PBKS to what looked like an unassailable total. There were 16 sixes hit by Pujab Kings with 13 coming off pacers.
Prabhsimran was initially a passive partner as it was Australian Jos Inglis who launched the first attack with a hat-trick of sixes off Mayank Yadav, whose speed has decreased by at least 15 kmph post his intense rehab under Nitin Patel at the BCCI's erstwhile National Cricket Academy to recover from back injury.
However, once Inglis was dismissed, Prabhsimran, along with skipper Shreyas Iyer (45 off 25 balls), took control of the game. They were only helped by some atrocious fielding from Avesh Khan, who would probably go down as the worst fielder in the 18-year history of IPL.
Adding insult to injury, Prabhsimran took the tall MP fast bowler to the cleaners as he was pulled over mid-wicket for back-to-back maximums. Khan went for 57 in four overs and if around 15 runs due to his misfielding is added, he caused the maximum damage for his team.
The duo of Prabhsimran and Iyer added 78 runs in 7.5 overs before Rathi, LSG's best bowler on view, became the first spinner in the current season to account for Punjab Kings skipper's wicket.
But Prabhsimran continued like a man possessed and LSG bowlers were guilty of feeding to his strengths throughout the innings.
