Guwahati, June 5: A few minutes into his new assignment as the Governor of Assam, Lt. Gen. (retd) Ajay Singh laid down his ?mission statement? ? he will sail with Dispur, unlike his predecessor, Lt. Gen. (retd) S.K. Sinha.
?He is the boss,? the Governor said, pointing to chief minister Tarun Gogoi. ?I will dive into the Brahmaputra if he wants me to.?
Gen. Singh?s statement, just after being sworn in at the Durbar Hall of Raj Bhavan, left many stunned, though it was apparently in jest. Visibly embarrassed, Gogoi rushed to lighten the moment. ?We will swim and cross the river together.?
The Governor?s statement was read in the context of the tempestuous relationship between Gen. Sinha, who has been shifted to Jammu and Kashmir, and Dispur.
A former general-officer-commanding of the Tezpur-based Four Corps of the army, Gen. Singh apparently wants to make it clear that he will be accommodating rather than confrontationist in his attitude towards the state government.
The new Governor said he would require a few days to take stock of the situation in the state. ?I have been in Guwahati for barely four hours; give me at least five days,? he said on being confronted by a bevy of inquisitive newspersons.
Gen. Singh, who had commanded the two counter-insurgency operations that were code-named Rhino and Bajrang, said there had been a marked improvement in law and order. ?The law and order scene is not what it was 10 years ago.?
On his interaction with his predecessor in New Delhi, the Governor said Gen. Sinha was satisfied with the progress of both counter-insurgency operations and development schemes.
To a question on whether his role would be ?proactive?, the retired army officer said, ?I have always been active?.
Gen. Singh said infiltration by migrants, a topic his predecessor had strong views on, was not a new problem and would be tackled in the manner it should be.
Immediately after arriving here, Gen. Singh and his wife offered prayers at the Kamakhya temple. He once again admitted his love for Assam. ?I fell in love with the state about a decade ago. There are very few places in the country where you find such natural beauty,? the Governor, a recipient of the Param Vishist Seva and Ati Vishist Seva medals, said.
Hailing from a family of landlords in Rajasthan, the Governor joined the army in 1956 after passing out from the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. He was involved in the 1965 and 1971 wars and served the armed forces in various capacities before retiring in 1993.
Immediately after his retirement, Gen. Singh was given charge of the Arjun tank project at the Defence Research and Development Organisation.