Vijay Kumar Singh takes oath as Governor of Mizoram

Aizawl: Former army chief General Vijay Kumar Singh was sworn in as the new Governor of Mizoram on Thursday.

He is the 25th governor since Mizoram attained statehood in 1987.

Singh replaced Hari Babu Kambhampati, who was appointed as the governor of Odisha.

Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi administered the oath of office and secrecy to Singh in a swearing-in ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan in Aizawl.

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Lalduhoma and his cabinet colleagues, assembly speaker Lalbiakzama, assembly deputy speaker Lalfamkima, MPs, legislators, important officials and senior police officers.

Two former chief ministers Lal Thanhawla and Zoramthanga besides special invitees from churches and different organisations also took part in the ceremony. 

Singh, who was previously Union Minister,  was appointed as Mizoram Governor by President Droupadi Murmu on December 24 as the incumbent Hari Babu Kambhampati was appointed as the new Governor of Odisha.

Although the oath-taking ceremony was initially scheduled for January 9, it has been deferred to January 16 due to the health issues of Singh's relatives.

Born in 1951, Singh served as the 24th Chief of Army Staff from March 2010 to May 2012.

He was awarded the Yudh Seva Medal (YSM) for operations as part of IPKF in Sri Lanka, the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) for distinguished service while commanding a counter-insurgency force in 2005 and Para Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) in recognition of his exceptional and distinguished services in the Eastern Theatre in 2009. 

On 11 March 2011, Singh was inducted into the United States War College (Class of 2001) International Fellows Hall of Fame. 

He is the 33rd International and the first Indian Armed Forces Officer to be inducted.

After his retirement from the military, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014 and was elected to the Lok Sabha for the Ghaziabad constituency of Uttar Pradesh in that year's general election.

He was re-elected to the same seat in 2019.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term, he served as the Minister of State for External Affairs, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), and Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation. 

He had also held the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation portfolio in Modi's second term.  

Singh is also credited for rescuing more than 7,000 people from Yemen and Sudan during the civil war besides bringing back the mortal remains of 39 Indians who were kidnapped and killed by ISIS in Iraq.

Consequent to the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine almost 18,000 Indian students were stranded in war torn Ukraine.

The Indian government launched 'Operation Ganga' for the evacuation of the students and General VK Singh was sent to Poland to organise rescue operations. 

He successfully rescued and evacuated almost 4,000 students from that area.