Dr Oscar Fernandes (27 March 1941 – 13 September 2021) was an Indian politician, a senior Indian National Congress leader, and the Union Cabinet Minister for Transport, Road and Highways and Labour and Employment, Government of India in UPA government.
Oscar was born to Roque Fernandes, the head of Government Composite PU College and the first President of Manipal Institute of Technology, and Leonisa M. Fernandes, the first female magistrate in India, at the family estate at Udupi. His family belongs to the Fernandes-Prabhu clan, a Mangalorean Catholic clan from Udyavara in the Udupi district. He married Blossom Mathias Prabhu on 26 August 1981 and had one son Oshan and one daughter Oshanie.
Fernandes was the Chairman of the Central Election Authority of the All India Congress Committee. He was previously the AICC General Secretary and the Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment in Dr Manmohan Singh’s first UPA government in India. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to Rajiv Gandhi.
He was elected to the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980 from the Udupi constituency in Karnataka. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984, 1989, 1991, and 1996 from the same constituency. Later, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1998. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2004. He was a Union Minister from 2004 to 2009, holding a number of portfolios such as Statistics and Programme Implementation, NRI Affairs, Youth and Sports Affairs, and Labour and Employment. He served two terms as a member of the Council of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
The name of Oscar Fernandes is also figured in the National Harold case.
Fernandes died on 13 September 2021 at the age of 80, due to age-related ailments at Yenepoya Hospital in Mangalore. He was undergoing treatment there since 19 July, following a clot in the brain due to a fall at his home.
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