Gujarat feels ‘winds of change’ in Raj Bhavan

At the vice-chancellors’ meeting, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani was also present. After the meeting, she went back saying she would request governors of other states to also emulate Kohli.”

“In my three and a half year-long tenure as Saurashtra University Vice-Chancellor, it was for the first time we were being called to Raj Bhavan to discuss prevailing issues in higher education. Technically, it was the first meet of vice-Chancellors with the Chancellor. This time he took feedback from us on staff crunch to self-financed colleges to infrastructure,” said Mahendra Padaliya.

A former teacher, 78-year-old Kohli is redefining the Raj Bhavan ever since he was sworn in as the state Governor in July, after his predecessor governor Kamala Beniwal was unceremoniously shifted out.

Kamala Beniwal had several run-ins with the former chief minister and prime minister Narendra Modi, since 2007, questioning most new bills that were passed by his government. The biggest clash was over the appointment of a Lokayukta, following which Modi had written to the Centre seeking her recall and the BJP had agitated on the streets.

Beniwal hit headlines mainly as a governor who, given her Congress party background, frequently questioned decisions of the BJP government.

In Kohli’s case, given his RSS roots and appointment by a BJP government in the prime minister’s home state, the authority is palpable.

Suddenly there is a spurt of press releases announcing the opening of a “reading corner” in the Raj Bhavan, Kohli participating in an elaborate Durga Puja on the premises and so forth.

In two months, Kohli is not just the ceremonial governor. A former Rajya Sabha MP who began his political career as president of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, even presided over the inauguration of Swalamban Abhiyan along with Modi on September 17, at function held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. He along with Modi and Patel lit the lamps to launch various schemes by the state government.

“It was quite a surprise to see the governor at programmes for the launch of  state government schemes. It was nothing against protocol, but for administration it was new,” remarked a senior IAS officer. Beniwal would be seen sharing the stage with CM Modi very rarely, mostly oath-taking ceremonies.

In fact, the first event that Kohli attended after becoming governor was the foundation day of of ABVP in Ahmedabad. And since then, he has been visiting Ganesh Pandals during Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, participated in Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s birth anniversary events at Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute and so on.

With the press department at Raj Bhavan quite active now, the official website of the Raj Bhavan is also being revamped.

“We are expecting the Raj Bhavan website to come up with new content and sections within a week or so. The technical department was contacted for the same recently,” said an official from Raj Bhavan.

Even the flow of political personalities to the Raj Bhavan has gone up. On the eve of Raksha Bandhan, Chief Minister Anandi Patel was at Raj Bhavan to tie Kohli a rakhi.