The George they knew is dead, friends disown Fernandes

Jhaveri is not alone. The old guard of socialists and assorted friends of Fernandes in Mumbai, where he cut his political teeth 40 years ago, are unable to comprehend George’s turnaround.

‘‘No one should talk the way he did on Wednesday but coming from him, it’s utterly shameful and unthinkable. At least it was unthinkable but knowing what George has become lately, I think we should stop being shocked. Even Advani ticked him off,’’ remarked Mrinal Gore, former MP and one of Fernandes’ closest political colleagues.

Ironically, Gore and Jhaveri are among Fernandes’ yesteryears friends working with peace activists and women’s groups in the city to organise support for victims in Gujarat.

Fernandes’ remarks in Parliament during the Gujarat debate that there was ‘‘nothing new…in a pregnant woman’s stomach being slit, a daughter being raped in front of her mother…these things have been happening for 54 years’’ have not just raised questions of his integrity, but have also drawn severe flak from a plethora of women’s organisations as well.

‘‘What George said was not even a surprise, it’s just too much. For all we know of him, this may be the real face of a hero called George Fernandes,’’ said Dinu Ranadive, writer and an old friend. Ranadive said he was first surprised some five-six years ago when Fernandes, along with his trade union acolyte Sharad Rao, went to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on the eve of municipal election in Mumbai. ‘‘He has changed so much from what we knew,’’ said Ranadive.

Other ‘‘friends’’ who do not even want their names to be associated with Fernandes are now bitter that the man who was once an icon of the socialist movement has ‘‘sold himself completely to the Sangh Parivar’’. Said one, ‘‘Either he has become terribly power-hungry or a complete opportunist. The RSS-BJP is using him and his credibility, and he is so power-blind that he can’t see it.’’

For many old-timers, Fernandes’ turnaround, which began last decade, has peaked with his Gujarat statements. ‘‘There was the George of 1954-55 when he first came to Bombay, became a popular union leader and defeated Congress’ S.K. Patil on his own home-turf in south Bombay, the really intelligent, well-spoken, union leader and political personality. And now there is the rotten and reactionary George. The two don’t meet, they are different people and I wonder if this George even remembers that one,’’ said Jhaveri, in whose house Fernandes lived for many years.