Meet your governor: R N Ravi, an officer, and tough gentleman

Meet your governor: R N Ravi, an officer, and tough gentleman

Prabin.Kalita @timesgroup.com

12.09.2021

Ravindra Narayan Ravi, the new governor of Tamil Nadu, is a man to watch. Here’s why: The 69-yearold IPS officer who retired seven years ago as the special director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) before he was appointed the Nagaland governor, is moving from Kohima to Chennai, two capitals so removed geographically, culturally and politically, but what may remain unchanged would be his image of being a no-nonsense administrator.

Born in Patna, the Kerala cadre IPS office took to journalism for a short while before he joined the administrative service in 1976 after completing his post-graduation in physics. While he was in the IB, most in government circles would say, “Ravi knows the northeast like the back of his hand.” His appointment as the PMO’s emissary for the Naga peace process by Narendra Modi in 2014 was seen as a recognition of his knowledge of the region, whose boundaries stretch from Bhutan, Tibet and Myanmar to Bangladesh.

Five years later, Ravi was appointed governor of Nagaland, which earned him the rare distinction of being the first incumbent constitutional head of a state to double up as a peace interlocutor in the country. Within a year, he convinced the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) to sign the first preliminary agreement. This is considered as a culmination of more than 80 rounds of peace talks between the Centre and the Naga organisation within and outside of India since1997.

Ravi has to his credit bringing the insurgent groups hostile towards India to the negotiating table. What stood between him and success was the NSCN (IM)’s demand for a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas. In 2020, he wrote to the Nagaland Democratic People’s Party-BJP government that he would invoke Article 371 (A) (1) (b) and take control of law and order in the state if it failed to stop rebel outfits from carrying extortions and violent activities.

In his letter, Ravi brought to the notice of chief minister Neiphiu Rio the presence of “dozen organised armed gangs” and rampant extortion by “armed gangs who are running a parallel government.” On the other hand, NSCN (IM) and seven other groups (who call themselves Naga National Political Groups) said they were merely collecting ‘legitimate taxes” and “contributions” from people.

Defending its position, the Nagaland government said Ravi’s assessments of law and order “do not appear to be factual.” A few months later, a mellowed state government asked all its employees to declare and give details if any of their family members are part of any underground insurgent group. Before his assignments as an interlocutor and governor, Ravi was the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the PMO. In 2018, he also served as deputy National Security Adviser.