Fernandes: Minister of masses

PUNE, May 5: He wears milky white starched kurta pajama and a pair of traditional Kolhapuri chappals. His arrival is not marked by heavy tra...

PUNE, May 5: He wears milky white starched kurta pajama and a pair of traditional Kolhapuri chappals. His arrival is not marked by heavy traffic jam with cops sweating out their blood to make way for smooth passage of seemingly never ending fleet of cars. Neither is he flanked by robust black cats training guns in every direction.

For Union Defence Minister George Fernandes, being a Cabinet Minister and holding one of the most important portfolio of world8217;s largest democracy is itself, on the contrary, the most obvious reasons to feel one with the masses.

His two-day itinerary in Pune brought forth some of the glaring aspects of his personality that hold the essence of his intellect against the backdrop of a trade union leader stretching it out to reach out to the masses.Throughout his two-day halt in the city in which he attended various functions, interacted with the press and the locals.

One of the most highlighting factors of his visit to the city was that despite being entitled for use of services aircrafts for his official visit Fernandes preferred to travel by ordinary passenger plane, thus saving a substantial amount on part of the Defence Ministry running into several lakhs which would have been spent had the Minister chartered a special aircraft as his official carrier.

Says Defence spokesperson, 8220;As per services rules President, Prime Minister, Defence Minister along with the three services chief are entitled to use services aircraft during the official visit.8221; The aircraft which they can use include Boeing, IL 76, helicopter and Avro.

In each of the function that the Minister attended in the city, he mingled freely with the local press and the common people marking no difference in relation to his earlier visits made to the city in different capacities.Interestingly, the men in olive, who are quite used to orderliness and strict discipline were in for a pleasant surprise to watch their Defence Minister listening to their grievances and also making a note of it in his personnel diary.

With no doubts about his political acumen, the first visit of George Fernandes to the city after he became the Union Defence Minister certainly brought out the more agreeable and genuinely 8220;human8221; facet of his personality.