India's defence minister, George Fernandes, 74, is a colourful,
outspoken politician whose political career has been as controversial as
it has been long.
Mr
Fernandes is head of the Janata Dal (United) party. The JD(U) is one of
main allies in the country's multi-party ruling coalition led by Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Fernandes is seen as one of Vajpayee's closest confidantes.
After the JD-U returned with 22 Lok Sabha MPs, Fernandes and Kumar
split from it to revive the Samata. The party again merged with JD(U)
and is now known by its former name. Their party has 20 MPs in the
outgoing house.
Fernandes, an MP from Bihar, hails from Karnataka and has built his
political career on his diehard opposition to the Congress party.
He was a star of the Vajpayee government through its three-year rule
until he quit March 15 when portal tehelka.com publicised videotapes
showing ruling politicians, army officers and bureaucrats take bribes to
fix military deals. These included Fernandes' confidant and his Samata
Party president Jaya Jaitly, who met the portal's two reporters posing
as arms agents at Fernandes' official residence. Both Fernandes and
Jaitly had to quit.
The "tehelka scandal", as it has come to be known, badly
dented Fernandes' carefully cultivated image of integrity, built on his
long innings as a political activist, initially as a vocal socialist.
Many consider Fernandes a loose cannon - one that does things his own
way. In 1998 he stunned everyone by going on an offensive against China.
The government was embarrassed. But the Dalai Lama-friendly Fernandes
had no regrets.
During his stint as defence minister Fernandes is said to have won
widespread support among Indian soldiers because of his efforts to
improve their working conditions. Despite being a life-long campaigner
against nuclear weapons, he supported India's nuclear tests in 1998
saying they were necessary to ensure its security.
