INTERVIEW:
GEORGE FERNANDES
"I am pro my country"Defence Minister George Fernandes spoke to Executive Editor Prabhu Chawla and Senior Editor Manoj
Joshi. Excerpts:
 You
are seen as anti-China?
I am neither anti-China nor anti-Pakistan. I am pro my country. As minister of
defence, my concern is to see that my country's defences are in proper shape.
Did you say that China is a potential threat or were
the words put in your mouth?
That was put in my mouth. I never used the word enemy. As defence minister, it is
my job to evaluate the threat perceptions of my country and I will do it.
So is there a threat from China?
Let me put it this way. China is a powerful country, a nuclear power, one of the
five major powers of the world. I have a perception to which I gave vent.
Do you want to share this perception with the people?
Yes I do. I don't believe that only those who sit within the four walls of this
room have the right to know and others do not. The defence expenditure proposed in the
interim budget is Rs 40,000 crore. When you are asking people to contribute that much of
money to the defence services then they should know why so much money is needed. Once they
know the challenges, they will make the sacrifices. There are no soft options in matters
of security. If we have to stand up, we have to take the hard options.
What are those hard options?
I will not spell them out at this point ... We have said that if our threat
perception makes us believe we need to go for the nuclear bomb, we will go for it. The
hard option is that when you talk of a bomb, you need a lot of money.
Are people getting confused about the difference
between foreign policy and security policy?
I am only expressing my concerns. Words have been put in the print media which I
have never uttered. All this is very unfair to the defence forces and very unfair to me.
But damn me, the country's security is much bigger than me or anyone of us.
What have you learnt in your eight weeks as defence
minister?
A lot. People are not aware of the conditions in which our troops are functioning.
I have new insights which make me aware of what I need to do. I am shocked at the
callousness in understanding the troops and their problems.
Like?
Take Siachen. Today, the jawans have to walk the 70 km long glacier carrying a 35
kg kit on their backs. Providing snowmobiles to them can make a world of difference. I saw
only two there. Give them 30, 40 or 50 more. You can't make life much easier there, but at
least give them some facilities.
Are you making a case for more money for the defence
forces for technology upgradation?
I believe the defence needs more money. I will tell you something. I am not letting
you into any secret, so I hope nobody makes another issue of this. There is ammunition
lying in the open. I will not name the places. But you'll be shocked to know that
ammunition worth several thousand crores of rupees does not have a shed. I can't accept
this.
What is your position on Tibet? Are you a supporter
of free Tibet or of human rights in Tibet ?
As minister, I pursue my Government's policy.
Would you say China is a friendly neighbour?
I would like it to be a friendly neighbour.
There is a feeling that George Fernandes is running
away with the BJP's national security agenda.
Well, I think the national security agenda cannot be any party's agenda. If we
consider national security as a party agenda, then we may land ourselves in a desperate
situation.
Do you have the backing of your Government?
I have absolutely no reasons not to believe that.
Are you attacking China because you can't attack the
US?
No, I don't have any political agenda here. I am more concerned with my
responsibilities as India's Raksha Mantri.
You are guided purely by national interest?
Yes, nothing more and nothing less.
GEORGE FERNANDES
A CLASS APART
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He is Indian politics' enduring enigma. In 1998, pushing 68, he still looks like
the quintessential '60s student. Crumpled kurta, chappals, unkempt hair, an archetypal
activist. But for most of the past 30 years and more, he has been one of India's most
enduring politicians -- elected seven times to the Lok Sabha -- and is now in his third
tenure as a member of the Union Cabinet. None
of this seems to have rubbed off on him. He has turned down the most important perk of his
ministry: the plush official Boeing 737. He prefers commercial flights wherever available.
Such behaviour would be an affectation were it not for its sheer consistency.
Fernandes began his career as a trade union leader in Mumbai
in Ram Manohar Lohia's Samyukta Socialist Party. He was elected to Parliament in 1967,
defeating the redoubtable S.K. Patil. He led the great railway strike of 1974, which was
crushed by Indira Gandhi with great brutality. When Emergency was imposed, Fernandes went
underground and got involved in a project to blow up railway tracks. He was charged with
sedition in the Baroda dynamite case and became something of a folk hero. The photograph
of Fernandes in chains remains one of the most vivid images of the Emergency.
After reluctantly contesting the 1977 polls from prison,
Fernandes was shanghaied into becoming minister for industy. He lived up to his flamboyant
reputation by showing IBM and Coca-Cola the door. He also justified his maverick streak by
defending Morarji Desai with great passion in Parliament and then promptly defecting. A
casualty of the 1984 Congress wave, Fernandes bounced back with the Janata Dal in 1989and
was made railway minister in the V.P. Singh government. He stuck to the party till 1995
when compulsions in Bihar led him to team up with the BJP. Between parties, Fernandes
picks up causes -- Tibet, Myanmar, Kashmir and multinationals' perfidy. |
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