Meghalaya: First Bodo Governor takes charge

Former BSF chief Ranjit Shekar Mooshahary, 62, has added one more first to his illustrious career by becoming the first Bodo to be appointed as Governor.

Former BSF chief Ranjit Shekar Mooshahary, 62, has added one more first to his illustrious career by becoming the first Bodo to be appointed as Governor. A former IPS officer, Mooshahary was sworn in as Meghalaya Governor by Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Jasti Chelameswar at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday.

His journey to the state’s top constitutional position is a classic tale of “rags to Raj Bhavan”. Born to a poverty-stricken Bodo family in Odlaguri — a backward village near Gossaigaon in Assam —- Mooshahary struggled to complete his studies, working part-time till he completed his graduation from St. Anthony’s College in Shillong. Despite these adverse circumstances, he became the first Bodo to have completed matriculation and graduation. He capped these accomplishments by becoming the first from his tribe to clear the IPS examination, that too in his first attempt in 1967.

In his 39-year police career, he achieved the distinction of being the first IPS officer from the Northeastern Region to be posted as director general (DG) of the National Security Guard (NSG) as well as the DG of the BSF. As NSG DG, Mooshahary guided the commando operation by the black cats at the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar on September 25, 2002 where the terrorists were decimated.

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Talking to reporters after being sworn in, Mooshahary said the Northeast was “trapped in a whirlpool of corruption,” adding that an “institutional arrangement” was required to check the problem. He made this observation after Assam earned the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt state in the country, according to the India Corruption Study 2007 report, which also stated that corruption is “alarming” in Nagaland and Meghalaya, “very high” in Sikkim and “high” in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.

Mooshahary, who was appointed as chief information commissioner (CIC) of Assam after retiring from the IPS, added, “The Right to Information is an effective mechanism to fight corruption and people must make full use of it.”

He also said respective state Governments of the Northeast must ensure “good governance” so that projects were implemented in time “without siphoning off of resources,” and claimed that for overall peace and development in the region, “the matrix of governance management needs to be made more transparent and accountable.”