To the Catholic community in Bombay in the sixties, J B D’Souza was a towering figure because of his positions in the city’s public transport world and in the powerful Municipal Corporation.
Had it not been for these positions, he would have only been the usual low profile high-ranking bureaucrat despite his succeeding to much higher positions in government. That era saw almost the last breath of exemplary public service motivating government, held on and propped up in no small measure by people like J B D’Souza. After that, whole edifices tumbled and gave in to bribery, corruption and all manner of ills that bedevil India today. George Fernandes for all the villainous picture that emerges from his actions, was a worker’s hero, a demigod to bus drivers, conductors and taxi drivers. He was a major figure in the country’s Socialist Party which explains his rise to the Defence Minister’s position. He earned that position through his political work, not through the buddy system of an extreme right wing fanatic movement that threw up Manohar Parrikar to that same spot in later years. George Fernandes was the only people-power figure who could face the phalanx of officialdom arrayed against him in those days. I do not give weight to either George Fernandes or J B D’Souza over the other. Both were strong figures in different worlds. George in the rough and tumble of the ever dominant street violence of the Bombay worker and J B in the cool halls of government chambers where beatings are not of the body but of the mind and spirit. Just as it was no mean feat for George Fernandes to court intimidation and violence it must also be commendable for J B to have faced the wily tricks and machinations of Bombay’s and Maharashtra’s devious, cut-throat politicians. Roland. Toronto. > On Dec 13, 2021, at 11:18 AM, Dilip D'Souza <dil...@gmail.com> wrote: > > December 13 2021 > > This year, my father would have been 100. A friend who knew him, Roger > Pereira, organized a celebration of his life - originally planned for June, > when his birthday was, but postponed till yesterday. (See attached poster.) > > Roger asked me to speak, and also to write a short article about him to > appear in a local magazine. I thought both pieces might interest you. >
