NEW DELHI, June 11: India on Wednesday named former defence secretary N. N. Vohra as its new governor in Jammu and Kashmir and resistance leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq described him as a reasonable person.

“We have had dealings with Mr Vohra,” Mr Farooq said from Srinagar.

“He came across as a reasonable person in the meetings we had with two Indian governments.” The chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference had led round table dialogue with the government of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and more directly with his successor and current prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

To this extent Mr Vohra, a popular figure at the Delhi's India International Centre, represents continuity. Also, as Mirwaiz said, he would be succeeding Lt Gen (retd) S.K. Sinha who was seen less as governor and more as a spokesman for military domination of the disputed state.

The state's Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, a Congress party strategist, also had lobbied for another term for Gen Sinha or, if not, for the appointment of former army chief Gen S. Padmanabhan.

That the Congress government in Delhi decided to opt for a civilian governor after nearly two decades is being seen as a significant departure from the prescribed path, which may presage far reaching changes in policy.