Mangalore: George Fernandes Condemns Attack on Carmelite Priest
Exclusive report from Melka Miyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (MB)
Pic: Austin Pinto
Mangalore, Jun 30: An attack on a Carmelite priest Fr Sylvester Pereira in Kundapur was certainly a criminal act. The state government had to deal with it properly, said former union defence minister George Fernandes here.
While speaking to 'daijiworld.com' at Fr Muller Charitable Institutions premises on Saturday June 30 evening he said that, if the state government was not taking proper action, the union government had to take action against the criminals, he opined.
Queried over the proposed Third Front, he said that the Third Front was doing nothing and it had no role to play in the country. Commenting on former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu's move on uniting the said Front and weakening ther National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he charged that Naidu was never with NDA and he used NDA for his personal benefits, he accused.
Earlier, in a press meet, recalling the memories of emergency, he said, "During emergency, my brother the late Lawrence Fernandes suffered brutal torture. It was not a government which existed then, but a dictatorship," he said.
Lawrence was locked in Bangalore jail. Everyday he was beaten up and was being asked the same question, "Where is he (George Fernandes)?" But nothing came out from him for the simple reason that he (Lawrence) had no idea at all, Fernandes explained.
The police had threatened him to dump him on the railway track in front of an approaching train. They also put him on the floor of the jail, kicked him with boots and and persistently demanded to know where George was. They had also threatened to rape their mother; he said, as he recalle the brutality during the Emergency.
Except killing Lawrence, the police did everything. When he came out of jail, he could not walk and could not hear properly, former defence minister said.
George Fernandes' brothers Aloysius and Michael Fernandes, FMCI director Fr Baptist Menezes, FMMCH administrator Fr Denis D'Sa, administrator, newly-launched Lawrence Fernandes Foundation's liaison officer Frederick D'Sa, and newly-designated FMCI director Fr Patrick Rodrigues were present at the press meet.
George Fernandes in Daijiworld's archives: