| Special Achievements
/ Events |
- Former member of Rajya Sabha from
Bihar. Winner of nine Lok Sabha elections
from 1967 to 2004.
- He was a key member of the Janata Dal,
and is the founder of the Samata Party.
- He has held several ministerial portfolios including
communications, industry, railways, and defence, and was the
only Christian minister in Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet.
- In 1949 he moved to Bombay, where he joined the
socialist trade union movement. Becoming a fiery trade union
leader, Fernandes organised many strikes and bandhs
in Bombay in the 1950s and 1960s.
- The most notable agitation he organised was the
1974 Railway strike, when he was President of the
All India Railwaymen's Federation.
- He went underground during the Emergency
era of 1975, while challenging Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
for imposing a state of emergency, but in 1976 he was
arrested and tried in the infamous Baroda
dynamite case.
- During his tenure as union minister, he ordered
American multinationals IBM and Coca Cola to leave the
country, due to investment violations.
- He was the driving force behind the Konkan
Railway project during his tenure as railway
minister from 1989 to 1990.
- He was a defence minister in the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government (1998–2004),
when the Kargil War broke out between India
and Pakistan, and India conducted its nuclear tests at
Pokhran.
- A veteran socialist, Fernandes has been dogged by
various controversies, including the Barak Missile
scandal and the Tehelka affair.
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