The transfer of S. K. Sinha to Srinagar Raj Bhavan is by all means a just but taxing reward for a job well done in Guwahati. Right from the day one, this former vice chief of Indian army correctly read the pulse of the Assamese.  It was reflected in all he said and did. He offered what Mufti Mohammad Sayeed terms as the healing touch to a wounded psyche. The beauty of its was Sinha did what he rightly thought was the fair and proper thing to do without much ado. Probably because he belonged to a different milieu and hence unfamiliar with the politicians craving for illumination, the General Sahib was very reticent. And it earned him more admirers. People in general have come to regard him as one of their own.

Certainly, by far the most important and in fact lasting contribution Gen Sinha’s years in Guwahati Raj Bhavan  was his effort to honour the memory of Gopinath Bordoloi, the visionary with a golden heart. As the first chief minister of undivided Assam, Bordoloi deserved a place along side the builders of modern India. His untiring contribution to keeping Assam with the Indian union at the time of partition of the sub-continent in 1947 is something every Indian should be rightly proud off. Unfortunately, present day historians have not given Bordoloi is due for reasons which remain as much in the realm of conjecture as to the distance that separates Guwahati from Delhi. Yes, it is true Bordoloi’s successors were no less responsible to this failure to perpetuate his memory. Lt. Gen. Sinha can rightly take the credit for the recognition the nation has conferred on the great son of Assam by placing by the side of other Bharat Ratnas. Even for the portrait of that adorns the Central Hall of parliament, for that matter. Frankly, naming Borjhar airport after Gopinath Bordoloi is not a big deal. But it needed the persuasive skill of a General Sinha to force the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation to make amends for its lapse. Any of the chief ministers could have got the job done. They did not for reasons they alone know.

Equally, if nor more significant was the way the General forced the nation to sit up and pay homage to the ‘forgotten’ heroes of Assam, like for instance Lachit Barphukan. The great warrior had kept the Mughals at bay at a time the entire eastern India had come under the sway of the House of Babar’s descendants on the Delhi throne. His military acumen and his heroism, above all his ability to motivate an ill-equipped army to take on the Great Moghuls should have been a lesson for deep study for the present day warriors churned out by the National Defence Academy (NDA). Unfortunately, reflecting the flip-side of the times we live in and our lack of sense of history, it did not happen till Gen Sinha intervened. Now, the NDA has a trophy instituted in memory of Lachit Barphukan for awarding to the best cadet every year. Once in Delhi, Gen. Sinha kept a distinguished audience that included the Army Chief and Union Home Secretary spell bound for over an hour as he spoke eloquently of the Great War hero.

It is difficult to offer an objective assessment of Gen Sinha’s contribution to solving ULFA tangle and to resolving the foreign nationals’ issue. History may not be unkind towards him because he tried to break the logjam in his own way. Unified command for policing was his contribution but he did not advocate like K P S Gill, a bullet for bullet, though he was conscious of the ISI factor and the harm it is causing to the northeast in particular and India in general. His meeting Paresh Baruah’s aged mother in the interior Assam conveyed a message that could have surprise the Kalashnikov wielding ULFA cadres. As he himself rightly said once, there is no better weapon than development to beat the insurgent, who is primarily a victim of unsympathetic society and lack of development.   These traits will certainly stand him in good stead as he takes up another assignment in the service of the nation long years after he was denied what his rightful due – the job of the army chief of India.