Ravindra Narayan Ravi has on Thursday arrived in Chennai and he will be taking oath as the next and 26th Governor of Tamil Nadu on Saturday at Raj Bhavan, the governor's official mansion in the city. Last week, the President of India made an overhaul of the Governors during which Ravi, who was serving as the Governor of Nagaland, was transferred to Tamil Nadu.

The overhaul has come when Tamil Nadu is four months into the rule of the new government formed by the DMK's MK Stalin. With the appointment, RN Ravi will be replacing Banwarilal Purohit, who has been made the Governor of Punjab, to keep an eye on the upcoming assembly polls in the Congress ruling state. Ravi has come to Tamil Nadu with a controversial record from his previous term in the Northeastern state and it was reported that the Union government has given a task to Ravi to monitor the DMK regime, which has been passing resolutions and bills against Modi's favourite acts.

Amid being surfaced with the controversy that Ravi is yet to vacate the government bungalow in Delhi, he has arrived in Chennai on Thursday after vacating the Raj Bhavan in Nagaland. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and other senior ministers had awarded a ceremonial welcome to Ravi and the Governor-designate had held talks with the Chief Minister. Ravi will be sworn in as the 26th Governor of Tamil Nadu on Saturday at Raj Bhavan in the presence of executive and judicial dignitaries. 

Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee will administer the oath of office to Ravi and it has been reported that the ceremony will take place in the lawns of Raj Bhavan, instead of a walled room, in light of the Covid-19 protocols. Ravi's appointment has drawn major attention as it was done on the same day when the Tamil Nadu assembly had passed a resolution to repeal the CAA. Significantly, Ravi wasn't a politician and brings in vast experience in the police service and intelligence. 

Ravi was born in Patna in Bihar and he holds a master's degree in Physics and also had a brief experience in journalism. He had become an IPS officer of Kerala cadre in 1976 and served for a decade before being called to Delhi to serve in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Ravi had held various positions in CBI and he also had led the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the country's premier intelligence agency, as its director and in 2012, he had retired from the civil service. 

In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inducted Ravi as part of his intelligence community. Ravi was appointed as the chairman of the joint intelligence committee in the Prime Minister's office and he coordinated the agencies to meet the intelligence needs of the country. 69-year-old Ravi had served as the Deputy National Security Advisor of India and on August 1, 2019, he was appointed as the Governor of Nagaland, after his paramount role of achieving peace in the region through an agreement between the indigenous fighters in Nagaland, who fought for a separate nation, and the Indian government. 

However, his role as Governor had met with incessant controversies with the insurgent groups accusing him of not favouring the agreement that was signed. Some of the groups had refused to talk to the government with the demand of recalling Ravi from the Governor post. The Nagaland state ruling party, which observes alliance with the BJP, had urged the Union government to withdraw Ravi from the state. Following the demands, Ravi was transferred to Tamil Nadu last week. 

According to an official press release from Raj Bhavan, Tamil Nadu, Ravi, who specialized in the dynamics of human migration in South Asia, worked extensively on the political sociology of border population. He played a crucial role in conflict resolutions in areas affected with ethnic insurgencies. He was the architect of India's international cooperation in counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing.