Governor transfers in Jammu and Kashmir have been sort of a spectacle in last 30 years, especially the last three – Gen SK Sinha, NN Vora and Satya Pal Malik. Soon after being appointed, they flew to impressive welcomes at the Srinagar airport with long cavalcades escorting them to the breathtaking Raj Bhawan in Srinagar. Their jobs concluded in interesting times creating situations that they hardly found time to see a decent goodbye.
Sinha flew home in a situation that he asked the official cameraman against recording his tight embrace to an officer, a Kashmiri Muslim KAS officer who retired soon after, whom he loved the most. Central government had to quickly shift Sinha out in wake of the mess he created by superimposing himself on elected government in 2008.
Vohra, one of the best governor’s in recent times, managed Jammu and Kashmir for almost a decade. Though he had sought his retirement, the BJP government created a situation for him that for packing his belongings, Vohra lived a long night in the annexe of the Raj Bhawan, the space that he controlled for ten long years.
In 2019, the central government decided against the suggestion of Satya Pal Malik that he would like to continue as Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, a hugely truncated status in comparison to what he enjoyed for more than a year. After the decision was conveyed to him, nobody in Srinagar knew when and how he left Kashmir. He made himself conspicuous only after he took oath of office at Goa and returned to newspapers headlines, courtesy Kashmir.
In these three cases, what was interesting was that the outgoing governor could not meet his successor. Ideally, managing the most sensitive territory in India would have required the formal exchange of notes. Somehow, it did not happen.
A HEADLESS STATE
This story is from the February 02-08, 2020; Issue 44 Vol 11; Witnessing The 1990 Crisis edition of Kashmir Life.
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This story is from the February 02-08, 2020; Issue 44 Vol 11; Witnessing The 1990 Crisis edition of Kashmir Life.
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