CPI(ML) pays its respects to veteran socialist leader George Fernandes who passed away on 29 January 2019 at the age of 88.
George Fernandes will be best remembered as a firebrand trade union leader, key leader of the historic 1974 railway strike, and courageous leader of the anti-Emergency movement.
He was also a supporter of various international resistance movements, with political refugees from Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and other countries finding asylum in his home and even using it as their office.
George Fernandes’s own reputation as a fighter for the oppressed and exploited was tarnished by his decision to ally with the communal fascist BJP. As Defence Minister in the Vajpayee regime, he tried to trivialise the atrocities against Muslims, especially Muslim women, that took place during the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.
