On Monday, 19 October, at Lok Bhavan in Dehradun, Dr Dhal Singh Bisen took the oath of office and secrecy as Governor of Uttarakhand. Acting Chief Justice of the High Court Manoj Kumar Tiwari administered it. ABP Live and NewsTrack: he is the state’s ninth governor. The appointment came on 12 October. The oath is the installation, not a vote.

The Hindu, via PTI: he succeeds Lieutenant General (retired) Gurmeet Singh. The ceremony included the state chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, ministers and senior civil and police officers. Dhami congratulated him in public. The governor is the Union’s representative, not the elected head of the state government.

Bisen was born on 14 May 1952, in Pipariya village, Seoni district, Madhya Pradesh. He is a physician and farmer, ABP writes. He entered the state Assembly in 1990 and won four terms through 2003. From 2003 to 2005 he was a cabinet minister, with forests, transport and minerals.

He then chaired Madhya Pradesh’s fourth State Finance Commission, 2011–2013. From 2019 to 2024 he sat in the Lok Sabha for Balaghat. That is the résumé in these reports, not a governing programme for Uttarakhand.

Bisen thanked the leadership in New Delhi for the chance to serve “Devbhumi”. He spoke of the Char Dham, of Adi Kailash and of Jageshwar, NewsTrack says. We have not turned an installation speech into policy already in force.

Other governors took oath the same day, in other states; that is not this event. This is Uttarakhand. Until an act of the governor, we have only the oath.

Image: Clock Tower, Dehradun, 18 December 2019, ArmouredCyborg, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Not the Lok Bhavan ceremony.

Sources consulted: Dhal Singh Bisen sworn in as Uttarakhand Governor — The Hindu; Uttarakhand’s new governor Dr Dhal Singh Bisen takes oath — ABP Live.