Governor of Kerala M O H Farook passes away

Kerala Governor Janab  M O H Farook passes away
In the death of Mr Farook, Puducherry has lost an astute political leader and his death is an irreparable loss

M O H Farook(6 September 1937 - 26 Jan 2012)

Kerala Governor M O H Farook passed away at a hospital in Chennai on Thursday night at the age of 74 following a brief illness.

Farook, a senior Congress leader and former Puducherry chief minister and MP, is survived by son and two daughters.He died at the Apollo Hospitals where he was undergoing treatment since last month for kidney and other ailments, his son and former Puducherry minister M O H F Shahjahan said.

He was sworn in as the 19th governor of Kerala last September, prior to which he had occupied the gubernatorial post in Jharkhand.Farook had served as chief minister of the Union Territory of Puducherry thrice and was a Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Tourism between 1991 and 1992.He was elected to Lok Sabha for three terms from 1991 from Puducherry and had also served as Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Condoling his death, Congress president Sonia Gandhi described him as an embodiment of secular ideals and recalled his services to the nation and the party.Mr Farook, a key political figure in the Union Territory, had the distinction of being the youngest Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly in the late 1960s.He had never faced defeat in any electoral battles in his several decades long political career.

Expressing grief over the death of the Kerala Governor, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy said from Delhi that he was an able administrator and a good politician who had guided the destiny of Puducherry in different capacities.