SHILLONG: Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan who was sworn in on May 12 last says his mission would be to serve all sections of people in Meghalaya irrespective of community, religion, caste or creed.
A post-graduate and an M Phil in Political Science, Shanmuganathan said since a very young age his parents took him on travels to different parts of Tamil Nadu. On one such travel he came across a literature on Swami Vivekananda. He was influenced by the Swami’s thoughts and philosophy.
He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1962 and later joined Bharatiya Janata Party and served in many party positions. He has been in-charge of the defence, research and documentation and Overseas Friends of BJP Cells. A prolific writer, the BJP leader had written three books relating to culture and social aspects in Tamil.
Sharing his thoughts with this correspondent, Shanmuganathan said he has worked closely with former Prime Minister, AB Vajpayee and learnt much from him on state-craft.
As a young man in Tamil Nadu, Shanmuganathan said he met a teacher whose three daughters committed suicide because he could not pay dowry for their marriages. He decided that he was going to create awareness about the evils of dowry and mobilised nearly one lakh young people to also join him in the campaign against dowry.
Shanmuganathan also shared how he next started a campaign against the discrimination of Dalits. He worked closely with Dalits and invited AB Vajpayee when he was the Prime Minister, to address a gathering of Dalits in Tamil Nadu. There Vajpayee touched the feet of an elderly Dalit woman who worked to liberate her people from the clutches of casteism.
He said people have the wrong ideas about those with an RSS background but having been trained as a Pracharak he has imbibed the virtues of serving humankind and believes in serving the least privileged of society.
Shanmuganatham said his appointment as Governor is an opportunity to serve the people of Meghalaya and all sections of people should feel free to come to him with their grievances.
About the ongoing controversy on the Village Administration Bill and the hunger strike by the former CEM, KHADC Adelbert Nongrum, the Governor said he is too new to make any comments and is still trying to understand the different facets of governance and the role of each of them in providing services to the people.