George Fernandes
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Private papers
Fernandes felt betrayed by Nitish, reveal letters
Akshaya Mukul The Times of India Dec 05 2014
In the manuscripts section on the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library in a quiet corner lie the private papers of once-fiery socialist leader George Fernandes. They are yet to be catalogued and put into neat boxes.A closer examination over two days reveals that these files have nothing from Fernandes' tumultuous years from the 1960s, 70s, his leadership of a railway strike, Emergency years, the Baroda Dynamite case or even controversies of the last two decades like the sacking of Vishnu Bhagwat, the Tehelka episode or even the coffin scam.
A major chunk of the Fernandes papers concerning his public and private life remain under the safekeeping of his family, leaving the period between late 1990s to 2009 available for scrutiny . But even here one can discover some rare gems. Like Fernandes being asked by the archbishop of Delhi: `How about your reconciliation with church and god?' Or the bit where Fernandes hits out at party colleague Nitish Ku mar in a 2009 letter to old socialist as sociate Kumar Aurangabadkar: “What you mention about Nitish is correct. I brought that fellow but he went on to see that I am sidelined.“ Further research yields another an other letter the same year where Fernandes wrote to JD (U) president Sha rad Yadav about his desire to contest the Lok Sabha election from Muzaf farpur because as a “socialist I am against entering Rajya Sabha.“
The running theme of Fernandes' papers remains his enmity with Indira Gandhi specifically and Congres in particular. In one letter of June 2005 to R.S.S. chief K S Sudarshan, Fernandes admonishes him for praising Indira Gandhi. “I cannot understand how the R.S.S. can admire a person who went to the extent of saying that her Emergency rule meant that even the right to life had been withdrawn as Hitler had done in Germany ,“ he wrote. Fernandes kept the pressure on the Gandhi-Nehru family , be it sending a letter from Sten Lindstrom, Swedish police officer and prime in vestigator in the Bofors case, to the then PM Manmohan Singh seeking his help or writing to Italian home minister Giuliano Amato, a socialist, to catch Ottavio Quattrocchi of Bofors fame.
Among the hundreds of paper, most of them letters to various UPA ministers seeking help for his constituents, there is one from former US there is one from former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld stating, “It was with dismay that I read press reports indicating that you had not received proper treatment at US airports in 2002 and 2003. I regret that such incidents occurred.“ Fernandes thanks him for his “sentiments“ and talks of how the two closely worked to strengthen the bilateral relationship.
