Why JP Rajkhowa's appointment as Arunachal governor is significant
On Saturday, former bureaucrat, JP Rajkhowa arrived in Itanagar to be sworn-in on June 1 as the governor of Arunachal Pradesh. He would be the 19th governor of Arunachal Pradesh in 28 years of its statehood. Besides being a former bureaucrat, he is a celebrated and an influential litterateur in Assam but is an unknown entity to the Arunachalees who are already expressing scepticism over the appointment of an Assamese as the governor. Mind you, to the Arunachalees, settling of the boundary dispute with neighbouring Assam is far more important and significant than settling of the international border along the McMahon Line with China; thus an apprehension has crept into people’s minds.
Rajkhowa’s appointment was necessitated after Lt General (Retired) Nirbhay Sharma was transferred from the Raj Bhavan of Itanagar to that of Aizwal to become the 17th governor of Mizoram, apparently as a result of the state BJP’s complaints against Sharma who was seen as biased towards the Tuki-led Congress government. Significantly, Mizoram has seen eight governors in ten months since July 12 last year - a fact that evoked negative reactions from the Mizos for treating their Raj Bhavan as a dumping ground. Whether Sharma would complete the rest of his tenure or encounter the same fate as the rest of the earlier United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-2 appointed governors, only time would tell.
It is pertinent to applaud Sharma’s life and time in Arunachal's Raj Bhavan — not for any far-reaching action but for maintaining a dignified silence and for quietly going about his cut-out works, as mandated by the Constitution.
However, despite all good deeds and his golden silence, few critics definitely shall point fingers at Sharma's over-stretched silence on the Tuki-led Congress government's financial mismanagement, as alleged by Kalikho Pul, his former senior cabinet colleague, which snowballed into a political crisis. If he has been transferred out, he himself ought to be blamed, since he failed to heed the "hue and cry" of the non-ruling political parties and of the civil society organisations especially the state BJP that has mustered courage and a stronger voice since the last general election.
Nevertheless, Sharma must be credited for bringing back dignity and respect to the constitutional chair after he took over from his predecessor General (Retired) JJ Singh. During Singh's tenure, it was felt, that his public relations (PR) overdrive in the local print media negatively impacted the dignity of the chair of the governor and his insignificant public engagements dearly cost the prestige attached to the chair, but Sharma reversed all those negatives.
Contrasting gubernatorial image between Sharma and Singh are too extreme to be ignored: that's a unanimous view among political watchers. With due respect to the two decorated soldiers, the quiet demeanor of Sharma, in comparison to Singh's flamboyant nature, wasn't lost amongst the lawmakers. There were anecdotes of how Singh attempted to treat a full-fledged state like a union territory by summoning cabinet review meetings at the Raj Bhavan during his initial days, thereby causing heartburn among the lawmakers. Sharma, however, maintained a very low profile throughout and limited his public appearances on the basis of need. Sharma was seen as a guide, not a manager; he was more of a mentor than a coach. More or less, all seem to agree that he has been a balanced personality, cost-conscious with no extravagant habits of flying or playing golf or even treating personal guests to helicopter joyrides at the expense of the state exchequer.
The sum of his tenure in Arunachal is that he shall be remembered as a gentleman but as one who failed to guide a chief minister; a failed mentor who could not create a performing team. Sharma had to leave Arunachal Pradesh with that fact and live with it, for the rest of his life. That shouldn't deter Sharma's morale in his new assignment; after all, such is the reality of politics and baggage of being a political appointee.