New Governors appointed for Bihar, Himachal

While Kovind has been a long-time political worker, Vrat is an educationist

The President on Saturday appointed senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Dalit leader Ram Nath Kovind and educationist Acharya Dev Vrat as Governors of Bihar and Himachal Pradesh, respectively. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar complained that the Centre flouted precedents by not consulting his government on appointing Kovind as the state’s governor.

“According to the precedent, the Centre and its home minister consults the state government and its CM. But I got the information (of the appointment) through media,” Kumar said. The appointment of Kovind comes in time for Bihar elections in October. Until now, West Bengal Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi held the additional charge of Bihar.

Kovind, a lawyer by profession, hails from Kanpur (rural) and belongs to the Koli caste among the Dalits. In Bihar, Dalits comprise a sixth of its electorate. Both the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as well as Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) have been wooing Dalits in the run up to the state polls. Kovind is the first Dalit to be appointed to a gubernatorial office by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government. The 69-year-old is a two-time Rajya Sabha MP, elected to the Upper House in 1994 and 2000 from Uttar Pradesh and a member of the BJP National Executive since 1997.

Kovind  was a central government advocate in the Delhi High Court during 1977 to 79 and later central government junior counsel in the Supreme Court in the 1980s.

He was a central government advocate in the Delhi High Court during 1977 to 79 and later central government junior counsel in the Supreme Court in the 1980s. He was also the general secretary of the Depressed Classes Legal Aid Bureau in 1986. The senior BJP leader has served on the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata in 2002 and the Management Board of the Dr. BR Ambedkar University, Lucknow in 2003.

While Kovind has been a long-time political worker, Vrat, appointed to the Shimla Raj Bhavan is an educationist. An Arya Samajist, 56-year-old Vrat has been the Principal of the Kurukshetra Gurukul since 1981. The Kurukshetra Gurukul was founded by Arya Samaj leader, who also led the Shuddhi Movement in the early 20th Century, Swami Shraddhanand in 1912. The institution imparts a mix of traditional Vedic and modern education and claims not to take any funds from the government. Vrat became its principal at the  young age of 24. He is also a yoga practitioner.

On the website of the institution, Vrat states his objective thus: to “adopt age long Indian ancient culture and tradition in practical aspects of life and to serve humanity by promoting scientific assumptions of it among human beings.”

Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh was holding the additional charge of Himachal Pradesh.