New Delhi: A former Congress minister in Rajiv Gandhi government and the Tamil Nadu BJP president are among the five new governors that President Ram Nath Kovind Sunday appointed to the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana following the completion of tenures of their respective predecessors.
No announcement, however, of lieutenant governors or administrators was made for the newly-formed union territories of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
Arif Mohammad Khan, who quit BJP in 2007 just three years after joining the party in protest over the distribution of tickets to “tainted leaders” in Uttar Pradesh was appointed the governor of Kerala. He will take over from P. Sathasivam, the former chief justice of India.
Khan, once with the Congress, first made headlines in 1986 when he resigned from the then Rajiv Gandhi government over its stand in the Shah Bano case. After quitting the Congress, Khan had joined the Janata Dal only to jump ship again and join the BSP. He joined BJP in 2004.
Bandaru Dattatreya, who served as labour minister in Narendra Modi government during its first term before stepping down in 2017, was appointed Himachal Pradesh governor in place of Kalraj Mishra, who has been appointed as Rajasthan governor.
Dattatreya’s tenure as labour minister had generated controversy when in 2016 he was accused of abetting the suicide of Hyderabad University student Rohith Vemula.
Kalraj Mishra, the Himachal Pradesh governor was transferred as Rajasthan governor in place of Kalyan Singh, whose term has ended.
Singh, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister took charge as Rajasthan governor on 4 September 2014. The BJP leader has served twice as the CM of India’s most populous state. It was under his tenure as CM that the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. Singh resigned taking moral responsibility for the events that unfolded on December 6 leading to the demolition.
Also read: Arif Mohammad Khan, you are still in 1986, your views on secularism & Muslims are outdated
TN BJP chief is Telangana governor
Former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari was appointed the governor of Maharashtra in place of Vidyasagar Rao. Rao was sworn in as Maharashtra governor on August 2014. He was a BJP leader from Telangana and has served as minister of state in the Vajpayee government.
Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, the BJP president of Tamil Nadu, was appointed Governor of Telangana in place of ESL Narasimhan.
Narasimhan was sworn in as Telangana governor on June 2, 2014. A former director of the Intelligence Bureau, Narasimhan was already serving his second term as Andhra Pradesh governor in 2014 when he assumed charge as Telangana governor as well following the bifurcation of the erstwhile state. He has also served as Chhattisgarh governor between 2007 and 2009.
Also read: No room for Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh in PM Modi’s council of 57 ministers
Following the announcement of appointment of Mr Arif Mohammad Khan as Governor of Kerala, the media houses have started presenting him as an Islamic scholar and an Islamic reformist. They are also saying that appointing Mr. Khan as the Governor is showing the true secular face of Modi Government.
To me, it is far from reality and fact. Just by reading some books, none is going to be an Islamic scholar. As far as reforming Islam is concerned, it doesn’t need to be reformed. It is already a reformed and modern religion. To appoint Mr. Khan as Governor is also not enough to project BJP-led NDA government as a secular one.
The fact is that Mr. Khan has been justifying most of the decisions of the Modi-government. He has been advocating Triple Talaq Bill which was and is a big source of pulling vote of majority community for the BJP. Mr. Khan has been pointing finger at Muslim Personal Law Board. He has been posing certain illogical questions to Darul Uloom Deoband. He has been accusing Madrasa system for long and so on so forth.
All these struggles and efforts of Mr. Khan is now paid. If any other party would have done the same, the BJP would have accused it for appeasement politics.
Really, in which country? Maybe you are from the elite and are talking about the elite in India from your country. How much have you seen of the community on the ground or for that matter in other Islamic countries except maybe Turkey. All ideals of Prophet Mohammed, Ataturk, Jinnah are already lost.
Comparing the attitudes of Muslims in my locality from my childhood to now, I can definitely say that they have actually regressed despite achieving higher levels of education on government freebies. They do not even cooperate with doctor physical examinations now and ladies insist on female doctors for every superspecialty such as ENT or ophthalmology.
This was never there a generation ago and the attitudes are very similar to Wahabism. My classmates in school never wore burqas, not even hijabs. Now, I see 3 year old girls being made to wear burqas and hijabs. As a doctor, I am afraid to ask lady patient to remove their burqa. How am I supposed to examine patients or recognise them later on when I have never been allowed to see their faces.
My hospital lab technician is a Shia. Every time he invites me to any function at his house, I usually find an excuse because, frankly, how are you going to greet people at the party when we have never seen their faces. I have never even seen his wife’s face. After several such invites, he one day kept on insisting on attending a function. Then I explained to him what sort of situation their customs have put us in.
A Christian or a Sikh or a Jain or a Buddhist etc might want to identify themselves with symbols of their religion but when those symbols are a huge obstruction to person to person interactions as well as to public security, then how is your community going to integrate into society.
You can surf the web for 2016 riots in Nellore to know about what happened here. You will be very lucky to find any news items at all because it is one of the most glaring examples of the pseudosecularity of the media. Just because a DSP level officer met the heads of the community and simply suggested that it is better for public security if full-face burqa is stopped, they ransacked a whole locality and burned the police station without any warning.
Which world are you living in? I have a Pathan who comes as my patient since 1 year and during every consultation, he keeps making unfounded accusations and complaining about everyone.. He is a contractor and drives a Toyota Innova and travels everywhere on flights but he considers my consultation fees of Rs.250/- as looting or usury [as called in the Quran or Bible].
Please stop your Ostrich behaviour.
Shri Kalyan Singh’s immunity has ended. He would be required to join the trial in the Babri Masjid demolition case. 2. One sincerely hopes Shri Sathasivam’s precedent will not be followed, in terms of judges becoming Governors.