Ekkadu Srinivasan Lakshmi (ESL) Narasimhan, the longest serving Governor in the country currently, will continue in Hyderabad Raj Bhavan for a few more months or till at least completion of process of the Presidential election slated to be held in July. The Centre thinks that he is needed here in view of strained and volatile relations between the newly carved out states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
ESL who completed his second term as the Governor of both the states on Tuesday, was told in the evening of the same day by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that he would be continued in the post for some more weeks. “Congratulations, Narasimhanji,” greeted Singh informing him of the Centre’s decision, sources in the Raj Bhavan told The Sunday Guardian.
Rajnath Singh’s call was followed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi who, too, conveyed ESL the Centre’s decision to retain him in Hyderabad Raj Bhavan for at least till regular appointments were made for all five vacant Governor posts in the country. This may happen after completion of the election process for the President post, by the end of July.
ESL, who originally hails from Tamil Nadu, was a 1968 batch IPS officer and allotted to AP cadre and enjoys the distinction of becoming the Governor of the same AP on 27 December 2009. Before that, he was the Governor of Chhattisgarh since 19 January 2007. He was appointed the Governor within three weeks after his retirement in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) after four decades of service, on 31 December 2006.
When he was in the IB, ESL handled several crucial assignments including some of them in erstwhile USSR as the First Secretary in Indian embassy in Moscow between 1981 and 1984. It was during that period that he became a trusted lieutenant of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who used to personally look after Russian relations, sources said.
ESL, known for his professional approach, was regarded in bureaucratic circles for his strategic moves on intelligence gathering and it is this no nonsense approach that made him the choice of Governor of Maoist infested Chhattisgarh 12 years ago. He personally coordinated the moves of security forces in the troubled state when daily ambushes by Maoists were the norm. But, the previous UPA regime sensed the usefulness of ESL in Hyderabad when the combined AP was rocked by the separate Telangana agitation spearheaded by TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). The situation turned violent after then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram made a statement announcing the beginning of the process for bifurcation of the state.
When he was in the IB, ESL handled several crucial assignments, including some of them in erstwhile USSR as the First Secretary in the Indian embassy in Moscow between 1981 and 1984.
The Congress government led by K. Rosaiah could not handle the twin crisis that engulfed the state at the time. The state witnessed political instability triggered by late CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s son, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy who wanted to become the chief minister, the post vacated by his father on the one hand and the law and order situation created by the separate Telangana activists on the other hand.
Ever since ESL was shifted to Hyderabad Raj Bhavan, he not only became the eyes and ears of the Centre, but also assumed the role of virtual CM of AP by directing reviewing the law and order situation and monitoring and planning the moves of the intelligence and police operations in the state. The Centre depended on him for reliable inputs on the state situation rather than on the aged CM Rosaiah.
During the first four years of his tenure in Hyderabad, till 2014, ESL’s Raj Bhavan resembled the CM office as all the senior IAS and IPS officers used to make beeline there to seek orders from him even as the actual CM Rosiah first and Kiran Kumar Reddy later used to sit in the Secretariat, two km away from there. The Justice Sri Krishna Commission which went into the question of bifurcation of AP, too, heavily relied on Narasimhan and coordinated their activities from Raj Bhavan. The Centre had appointed advisers to the Governor as if the state was under President’s Rule. ESL shot down many key appointments of vice-chancellors and other posts made by the successive Congress CMs.
The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre used to side with the Governor even though there were popular governments of its own party in place in Hyderabad. Such was the importance of Narasimhan. He was initially targeted by the TRS which thought was the Governor was being used as a tool to suppress the separate statehood agitation. Once the Centre began moves to form the separate state since later part of 2013, the TDP targeted him and demanded that he be shifted out of Hyderabad. But, he always stood by his official brief given by the Centre. Two IAS officials who worked with ESL between 2009 and 2014 told The Sunday Guardian that he was the Governor who was most trusted by both the PMO and the Ministry of Home Affairs.