Another August 5 Surprise: Murmu’s resignation as LG fuels speculations

J&K expecting a high profile visit next week

JAMMU: In a major surprise on the day of first anniversary of revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcation into two Union Territories, the first Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu resigned from the post.

Even as the Raj Bhawan or the government’s official spokesman had not put a confirmation in public till the time of going to the Press but the central government’s official broadcaster the Prasar Bharti put out a tweet on its official handle with one liner “Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu resigns. He was appointed in October 2019”. The tweet came about by midnight.

Murmu’s resignation gave rise to wide speculations about Centre’s further possible moves on Jammu and Kashmir as a large-scale line of activity planned for August 5 -the anniversary of the revocation of state’s special status -were also suddenly toned down. A source familiar with latest developments said that there could be a high-profile visit to Jammu and Kashmir early next week to spell out further course of action. The hint is about visit of Prime Minister or the Home Minister to Srinagar before the Independence Day celebrations.

Murmu, who arrived in Jammu from Srinagar earlier in the day, gave a series of interviews to newspapers, news agencies and portals. His last interview was about 7 PM. None of the journalists who interviewed Murmu in the day could believe that he would resign few hours later. “The Lieutenant Governor was confident as usual and talked about the future plans of his administration”, said a journalist as he refused to believe in the news of resignation.

His resignation came on the day the Union Territory marked the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

The 60-year-old former IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre had on October 29 last year taken over as the first LG of the union territory after the state of Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded and sliced into two UTs, the other one being Ladakh. A1985-batch IAS officer, Murmu has served as Principal Secretary to Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister. He was a secretary in the ministry of finance at the time of his appointment as Lt Governor.

It was widely speculated that Murmu could be appointed as Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) a post falling vacant in a few days upon end of the term of the incumbent Rajiv Mehrishi. Mehrishi, who retired as Home Secretary in 2018, met with President Ramnath Kovind earlier in the day.

Last few months of Murmu in office were of turbulence in the bureaucracy with differences between him and the Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam coming out in public every now and then. A few weeks ago when a Commissioner Secretary’s letter to Chief Secretary was leaked out, it looked certain that working of Murmu and Subrahmanyam together had already become untenable.