Choices for Raj Bhavans

The only thing that recommends itself about the Centre’s choice of six new gubernatorial faces is that the Home Ministry at last could attend to this critical task of filling vacancies in various Raj Bhavans. It is, at best, a mixed bag. It is perhaps too late in the day to lament that every regime at the Centre ends up using the Raj Bhavans and Raj Niwases as parking space for redundant political figures. There is not much to write home about choices, belatedly, made.

 There is one significant omission in the Saturday’s announcement: the Srinagar Raj Bhavan remains undisturbed. For too long there have been unhealthy and unbecoming speculations – mostly emanating from the ruling party quarters in Delhi and Jammu—that a new Governor would be arriving shortly in Srinagar. Jammu and Kashmir is too sensitive a state to be subjected to such uncertainties and doubts. All said and done, the Jammu and Kashmir Governor is the Centre’s emissary and representative, as well as New Delhi’s eyes and ears besides being constitutionally obliged to be a watchful guardian of the state’s well-being. Given the state’s troubled circumstances, at no time there should be any doubt about the Centre’s confidence and trust in the Governor of the day. NN Vohra’s presence has had a stabilising and salutary effect in these times of considerable confusion atop the Raisina Hills.

And, there is a significant inclusion—Brigadier (retd) BD Mishra as Governor for Arunachal Pradesh. While it has been customary for some time now to trawl the retired armed forces leadership for potential gubernatorial choices in the North-East, it is the first time that a Brigadier-level official has been tapped on the shoulder. Arunachal Pradesh is a state where the Army has considerable voice in guaranteeing its security and stability. A retired Brigadier in the Itanagar Raj Bhavan would make a strange interlocutor for the Army brass, wedded as it is to the discipline of hierarchy and protocol. Brigadier Mishra’s only claim to fame is that he has been associated with the BJP’s ex-servicemen cell and was actively involved in mobilising the fauji constituency during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This choice is fraught with implications, mostly unhealthy.