A decade of grace: NN Vohra's term in J&K

SRINAGAR: Narinder Nath Vohra will be remembered as the longest serving governor of Jammu and Kashmir after Dr Karan Singh, who held the fort at Srinagar’s picturesque Raj Bhavan for nearly 15 years.

Mr Vohra, the retired 1959 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre, has been the governor of the restive state for more than ten years now and will be completing his innings with grace soon. He has also been a shrewd and wise administrator.

The Centre on Tuesday appointed Bihar governor Satya Pal Malik as the new the governor of J&K, which has been under Governor’s Rule with its Assembly placed in suspended animation since June 20 following the collapse of the PDP-BJP coalition government.

J&K is the only state where Governor’s Rule is imposed instead of President’s Rule in case of absence of an elected government. The J&K has its own constitution as per section 92 of which the state is placed under Governor’s Rule for six months whereas in other state’s President’s Rule is imposed in such a situation under Article 356 of the Indian Constitution.

The President of India appointed Mr Vohra as the governor of J&K in June 2008 at a time when the state was witnessing its worst political crisis in decades in the aftermath of the Amarnath land row. In fact, his first task as the governor of the state was to control the difficult situation set off by the controversial move of the previous PDP-Congress coalition government. He was re-appointed as the governor of the state in 2013 and completed his second term on June 25 this year, thereby becoming the longest serving governor of the state after Mr Singh.

The scion of Dogra Maha-rajas, Mr Singh was Sadr-e-Riyasat (President) of the state from November 17, 1952 to March 30, 1965 and governor from March 30, 1965 to May 15, 1967.

Mr Vohra, 82, after being given a fresh term in 2013 had been among the few governors appointed by the UPA government to have continued in his position in the NDA dispensation.

However, if reports that had emanated from New Delhi recently are to be believed, he fell out of the Narendra Modi-led government’s favour as the two were not in agreement on the formation of a new government in the state. Mr Vohra was learnt to have recently also written a letter to home minister Rajnath Singh, saying that the issue of Article

35A should not be dealt with till a popular government has been formed.

Last year, he had reportedly told the home minister that he would like to resign as he was not happy with the handling of the situation by both the Centre and the state governments in Kashmir since the July 8, 2016 killing of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.