One of the most prominent leaders of the socialist movement in the 1970s, George Fernandes was a senior Janata Dal leader before he founded the Samata Party.
According to the Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute cardiologists team which attended on him, his vital parameters are stable and he is likely to be under observation for the next 24 hours.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday challenged the Centre to produce evidence against former defence minister George Fernandes against whom the CBI has filed an FIR in connection with Barak missile deal.
The defence minister undertook a fighter sortie in a SU-30 MKI from the Lohegaon Air Force Station near Pune.
The Central Bureau of Investigation will question former defence minister George Fernandes and former naval chief Admiral Sushil Kumar in connection with Barak missile deal.
The case pertains to the purchase of Barak missile system from Israel.
Fernandes sent defence ministry officials on familiarisation trips to various parts of Jammu and Kashmir and to the areas bordering China in Arunachal to see for themselves the difficulties faced by border guards.
George Fernandes undergoes neurosurgery at AIIMS
'He will be remembered for his simplicity and for taking up the cause of the labourers with great passion.'
Sources said Fernandes -- during the questioning by the CBI -- could not remember anything that happened during the particular period.
National Democratic Alliance convenor George Fernandes met former member of Parliament and Janata Dal-United leader Anand Mohan Singh in Patna's Beur jail on Sunday. Singh was recently sentenced to death for the lynching of Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994.
'He could relate to strategic and security issues almost instantly.' 'He had the ability to grasp, absorb and come out with actual rectification.'
Opposition MPs have been boycotting the defence minister citing his role in the Tehelka expose.
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Fernandes wanted Coca-Cola Company to not just transfer 60 per cent of the shares of its Indian firm but also the formula for its concentrate to Indian shareholders.
There is a strong demand for the removal of these ministers, but the government has chosen to let Parliament remain paralysed over the issue, he said in a letter to H S Surjeet.
"I salute your spirit, your valour from the bottom of my heart. Jawans and officers in the Armed Forces have a sense of pride, that is the strongest sentiment in the heart of any human," Singh said while addressing personnel at the Siachen Base Camp.
'No, India and China were not about to go to all-out war over a few rocks of Galwan.' 'The full picture of what went on at the highest level between two heads of State will not be known for a very, very long time and rightly so,' points out Colonel Anil A Athale, former head of the history division, ministry of defence.
The country's first woman defence minister sat in the rear seat behind the pilot and was wearing the pilot's G-suit.
The defence minister said he was also checked for SARS at Shanghai before leaving for India.
The first of the three-part report submitted to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by Justice S N Phukan immediately came under attack from the opposition which questioned the basis on which the judge had given a clean chit to Fernandes.
"Ultimately, even the prime minister can get tired," he told NDTV.
Mukherjee said Fernandes approved the visits, which the commission claimed was for inspecting weapons systems under probe, on December 22, 2003, when it was inquiring into 14 major defence deals.
Former Defence Minister George Fernandes was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation recently, in connection with alleged irregularities in the purchase of seven Barak missiles worth Rs 1150 crore, from Israel.The CBI officials visited the residence of ailing Fernandes, who was Defence Minister in the National Democratic Alliance government, on two separate occasions and asked him questions as to why the deal of purchase of Barak Missile Systems was pushed.
'I hope we can move towards peace, stability, and national unity.' 'I believe most Kashmiris want that too.'
The CBI has filed cases against former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitley and former Bharatiya Janata Party president Bangaru Laxman in connection with the Tehelka defence expose.
Talking to rediff.com outside Parliament complex on Wednesday, Fernandes said: "This is definitely an attempt to settle scores with me." When asked if the Central Bureau of Investigation had at any point of time questioned him with regard to the Barak missile deal, the former defence minister replied in negative.
His weeklong visit is expected to enhance India-China military-to-military ties and boost mutual understanding and trust.
They have been pointing out that he is yet to cleared by the commission probing irregularities in defence deals.
Some of them say the 'colour of terror is red'. Security agencies are clueless about who is sending them.
Google Earth's display of pictures of key Indian installations including military bases, offices of the prime minister and the President, as well as nuclear facilities, had raised concerns from various quarters in the recent past.
As defence minister, Fernandes was twice strip-searched in the US.
He was on his way to the Rajgir Circuit House after attending a function at Hilsa when his Tata Qualis hit a truck.
'It is their business to protest. It is our business to do our work,' he said.
With his name not figuring in the Central Bureau of Investigation chargesheet in the coffin scam, former defence minister George Fernandes on Monday demanded an apology from the Congress for alleging his involvement in the 2002 case.
The Janata Dal-United president alleged that the conspiracy to malign him was hatched at the residence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
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