After I hung up my spurs as the army chief on 30 September 2007, Rohini and I just relaxed for a few days and took stock of our personal matters. These had taken a back seat during my service career – things like personal correspondence, bank accounts, passports, housing, car loans and the like. During this period Rudrangshu Mukherjee from The Telegraph approached me to write for their op-ed page. I agreed to write one article every month. During my tenure as the army chief, I was requested by some organizations to receive their awards in appreciation of my services for the nation. I had politely declined their requests at that time citing exigencies of service. Having retired, I had no hesitation to say yes to such honours provided the organizations were non-political and reputed. Therefore, in October that year, I received the ‘Sikh of the Year 2007’ Award from the ‘Sikh Forum International’, at the famous Lincoln’s Inn in London. Thereafter, we spent a few days with Vivek and his wife Anna, and their two lovely daughters, Anne-Tara and Marie-Sana, at their cosy home in the countryside in Normandy, France. We enjoyed this holiday like free birds soaking in the wonderful ambience of the French countryside.
The word retirement has never appealed to me. I look at life ahead as a batsman who is taking the crease for the second innings. For both Rohini and me there is no question of sitting on past laurels; we always try and find something constructive and meaningful to do. We came back to Delhi and got immersed in reorganizing our lives in the new milieu and environment. Golf came to our rescue and we tried to play as frequently as possible. It kept us sane and fit. One day around mid-November 2007, I received a call from the office of the national security adviser (NSA) asking me to meet him. The next day we met in the NSA’s office. After the usual pleasantries, he mentioned that the government was considering me for a gubernatorial position, and asked for my views. Frankly, I was not expecting such a question and after a pause, replied that it would be a great honour to serve my country. Then he threw another bombshell and said that he had learnt that I would prefer to be an ambassador. I had no hesitation in telling him that he had been misinformed. I had tea and while leaving his office, I turned back and expressed my desire that if something was going to come my way, it would make me happier if there was a challenge in it. I came back and shared the gist of the conversation with Rohini. Then we forgot all about it. In the meanwhile, a close friend of mine offered me a vice-presidentship and an equal status to him in his multinational company, with unbelievably attractive terms and conditions. I requested him to give me six months’ time. If nothing came up from the government, I would gladly join him after the ‘cooling off’ period.
On 24 January 2008 I received a message from the office of the home minister that he wished to have a meeting with me. It was a very brief and pointed meeting. The minister, Shivraj Patil, asked me if I was willing to accept a governorship in the northeast. I replied in the affirmative, saying that it would be a great honour. He said, ‘I am moving the file now to the prime minister with the recommendation that you should be appointed as the governor of Arunachal Pradesh.’ I thanked him and left his office. Till that day I had no inkling that the ministry of home affairs was the nodal ministry for the appointment of governors. Things moved with lightning speed thereafter. By mid-day on 25 January, I was rung up by the secretary to the president of India, Christy Fernandez, congratulating me on being appointed as the governor. I thanked him and asked him if the warrant of appointment could be sent to me. He confirmed that it was on the way. I asked him if any date had been specified. He said it was left to me, and that my appointment would take effect from the day I was sworn in. I got the first congratulatory call from Arunachal Pradesh from Prashant Lokhande, the secretary to the governor. An extremely sincere and efficient officer, Prashant gave me a brief description of the capital, Itanagar, and also apprised me of the forthcoming visit to the state by the prime minister on the 31st of the month. That left Rohini and me with no other option but to pack our bags and leave the next day.
Sketch 35.1: Arunachal Pradesh
When the country was celebrating its 61st Republic Day, both of us flew into the enchanting state of the rising sun, Arunachal Pradesh. I was to take over as the governor on 27 January. We took off from Delhi in the morning and two hours later reached Guwahati, where we were received by a minister from Arunachal and our state’s resident commissioner, besides some other officials from the state of Assam. From Guwahati, it was a six-hour journey by road or else a helicopter flight for an hour. We preferred to travel by the chopper to save time.
As we flew over the Brahmaputra valley, memories of my travels and stay in various places of the northeastern region flashed across my mind. During my army career, I had done three tenures and had served in three out of the seven northeastern states, namely Nagaland, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. It needs to be stated that when the sun rises over India, its rays fall over the northeast at least an hour before they do on Delhi. I have always felt that there was a necessity of having an eastern standard time in India. Further, if one looks at the map and focuses on Guwahati or Shillong and draws an arc with a radius of 1000 kilometres, the circle would encompass eight countries. And it would include cities and towns like Kolkata, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Varanasi, Thimpu, Lhasa, Kunming, Mandalay, Chittagong and the border areas of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Therefore this area assumes geo-strategic importance and is, in fact, the land link between India and Southeast Asia.
Historically, the Brahmaputra valley, surrounded by densely forested hills which rise northward to the Great Himalayas, is a land inhabited by an ancient civilization of plainsmen and tribals. It has a vibrant culture and was once a flourishing centre of trade. Assam tea has been exported to the UK since 1838. Oil was discovered in this area and a refinery was set up at Digboi in 1890. Even at the time of our independence in 1947, the northeastern region was amongst the most prosperous of the country. Abundant in oil, minerals, coal, forests and water, a large area is yet to be explored. It produces a huge quantity of tea and fruits like pineapples, oranges, leechies, apples and kiwis. Bamboo, cane, ginger, and other herbal and medicinal plants are aplenty. There is tremendous scope for these natural products to be exploited commercially. This region has some of the world’s untouched rain forests, thus earning for itself the status of a biodiversity hotspot. Handicrafts of the area are a novelty. The people are handsome, sincere, content, hardworking and proud of their culture and martial arts. They are fun-loving and have music in their blood. Yet today, the northeast is generally lagging behind the rest of the country as far as development is concerned.
I reminisced of the many crossings of the ‘pagla’ (mad) Digaru river on elephant back to reach Tezu, the district HQ, in the early 1980s; the freak accident when the jeep overturned and we nearly fell hundreds of feet into the Lohit river; trekking over a thousand kilometers; and my battalion’s participation in operations on the Indo-Myanmar border. We were accorded a warm reception, with a ceremonial guard of honour, at the Raj Bhawan helipad at Itanagar, where Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and his entire cabinet and the who’s who of the state had gathered to welcome us.
Arunachal Pradesh, earlier known as NEFA (North-East Frontier Agency) has always been considered a geo-strategically important part of our country, with a common boundary with Bhutan, China and Myanmar. Therefore, successive leaderships at the centre have always given it a very special and unique status while formulating the development priorities for the country. It is well known that our first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had tremendous love and respect for the tribes of Arunachal and their culture and traditions. He had a firm belief in the policy of letting the people here develop at a pace and in a way that was determined by them rather than imposing any development model on them (Nehru-Elwin Policy). Much before the Indo–China war of 1962, he had visited this frontier state in the 1950s. The strong bonds continued during the tenures of Indira Gandhi, who accorded Arunachal the status of a Union Territory, and Rajiv Gandhi, who bestowed on it full statehood in 1987. The people of the state have, in turn, reposed their faith in the policies of the central government. In fact, the famous incident of one of the ‘gaon-burhas’ (a title for a respected villager elder) of Apatani plateau proposing to marry Indira and offering a large number of ‘mithuns’ (a prized animal of the oxen family) as bride price, is still fondly remembered by many Arunachalis!
It is a sensitive state as the Chinese continue to wrongly show a major part of it in their maps as their territory. Therefore, the state cannot be allowed to be destabilized either politically or from the law-and-order point of view, and development has to be given the highest priority. The feeling that I couldn’t have got a more challenging assignment gave me immense satisfaction.
On my swearing-in on 27 January 2008, I silently prayed for courage, strength and wisdom to live up to the expectations of the people and do justice to the oath that I was taking. Almost twenty-seven years ago, I was the commanding officer of 9 Maratha Light Infantry, which was one of the units tasked to defend our borders in Tezu district. Little did I realize then that one day I shall be back in Arunachal Pradesh as its first citizen. However, when I look back to the two-and-a-half years spent by me in the state in the early 1980s, it is disheartening to see that not much development appears to have taken place in all these years. Although there was some development of infrastructure, more could have been achieved. Very little was done as far as tourism was concerned. Further, there was no industry worth the name. So, there was indeed a challenge for all of us in Arunachal to give greater momentum to development in all spheres.