R. N. Ravi

Some Lesser Known Facts About R. N. Ravi

• R. N. Ravi is a former Indian Police Service Officer of the 1976 batch of the Kerala cadre. He served as the 18th Governor of Nagaland and the 15th Governor of Tamil Nadu. Ravi also held an additional charge as the Governor of Meghalaya for some time.

• R. N. Ravi grew up in a middle-class family in Patna, Bihar.

• Following his post-graduation, R. N. Ravi worked as a journalist in New Delhi for a while.

• He then appeared for the civil service examinations and cleared them in the year 1976, becoming an IPS Officer of the Kerala cadre.

• Subsequently, he went to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Telangana, to receive his IPS training.

• Since his appointment as an IPS Officer, Ravi served the state of Kerala in various capacities. He also served other states of the nation like Jammu & Kashmir.

  

• During Ravi’s term with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he headed various anti-corruption campaigns against organized criminal gangs like mining mafias.

• While Ravi was associated with the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the premier intelligence agency in India, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, he served in the areas of insurgencies and violence like North East India and Jammu & Kashmir. Ravi has also worked in some Maoist-infected regions. He was often praised for his vast knowledge of northeast India.

• He was working as the director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) before his superannuation in 2012.

• After retirement, R. N. Ravi started writing columns in national dailies.

• He was appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in 2014. while working as the head of the committee, Ravi synchronized various agencies and provided them with the utmost guidance to meet the National Security needs of the country.

• In the same year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national security adviser Ajit Doval handpicked him as the interlocutor for the Naga peace talks.

• After earning a specialisation in the dynamics of human migration in South Asia, Ravi worked on the political sociology of the people living near the borders.

  

• He made significant efforts to resolve the conflicts between various armed groups in the areas affected by ethnic insurgencies.

• Ravi was the architect of India’s international cooperation in counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing.

• He was appointed as the Deputy National Security Advisor of India on 5 October 2018.

• On 20 July 2019, Ram Nath Kovind, the then President of India, nominated R. N. Ravi as the Governor of Nagaland. Succeeding Padmanabha Acharya as the Governor of Nagaland, R. N. Ravi assumed office on 1 August 2019. He was administered the oath by Arup Kumar Goswami, the acting Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court, at Durbar Hall, Raj Bhavan in Kohima.

  

• Meanwhile, Ravi was also given an additional charge as the Governor of Meghalaya after the post became vacant at the completion of Tathagata Roy’s term. He held the additional charge from 18 December 2019 to 26 January 2020.

  

• Simultaneously, he also kept serving as the interlocutor for the Naga peace talks. In 2020, Ravi had a fallout with Isak Muivah’s National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) as he misinterpreted and manipulated the framework agreement that was signed in 2015. He resigned from his post in 2021.

• In September 2021, Ravi was transferred to Tamil Nadu. He assumed the office of Tamil Nadu’s Governor on 18 September 2021.

  

• During his tenure as the Governor of Nagaland, R. N. Ravi annoyed the journalists of the Kohima Press Club (KPC) by ignoring their requests for interaction with the media. The members of the KPC apparently boycotted his state farewell programme.

• Not happy with Ravi’s appointment as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, the ruling party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its alliances Indian National Congress (INC) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party had a secret motive behind his appointment.

• In April 2022, R. N. Ravi referred the remission plea of A. G. Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, to the President. He was severely criticised for his actions by the Supreme Court who stated that it was a wrong move as there was already a recommendation in the case by the state cabinet.

• Interfering in the administration of the Tamil Nadu government on several instances, R. N. Ravi has been criticised several times by political analysts.

• From September 2021 to April 2022, R. N. Ravi rejected around 19 bills (including the anti-NEET bill) which were passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

• Around 21 pending bills in the Tamil Nadu Assembly were passed by Ravi on 31 May 2022.

• In January 2023, during the middle of the proceedings in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, R. N. Ravi walked out of the Assembly as Chief Minister MK Stalin moved a resolution in the Assembly, asking the Speaker to only take on record the speech prepared by the government and remove Governor’s portions in the customary address.

  

• Post his transfer as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, the President of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party Chingwang Konyak said during a media conversation that the government of Nagaland was unhappy with R. N. Ravi’s functioning in the state as he often interfered in the government affairs.

• R. N. Ravi is also serving as the Chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tamil Nadu (as of 2022).

• In January 2025, he made headlines after leaving the legislative assembly in frustration. According to an official statement from the Raj Bhavan, Ravi felt that the Indian national anthem was “disrespected” when only Tamil Nadu’s state anthem was played. However, both anthems are typically played before the formal beginning of assembly sessions.