M.M.K. Wali

M.M.K. Wali was the Home Secretary when Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984, and on 4 November 1984 he became Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in place of P.G. Gavai, who had resigned. He appears in the record of the November 1984 killings of Sikhs in Delhi as one of the public officers the Misra Commission examined.

Key moments

• 31 October 1984: the Misra Commission records that soon after the assassination the Home Secretary sent wireless messages to all the States, including the Delhi Administration, alerting them to apprehended trouble. It quotes Wali as telling it that between 11 and 11.30 a.m. he spoke to the Lieutenant Governor and the Commissioner of Police to ensure that the situation was watched "with great care and caution", and that the Home Minister, the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister were away from Delhi until between 3 and 3.30 p.m. The Commission adds that Gavai supported this statement.
• Before the report of August 1986: the Misra Commission examined him, with P.G. Gavai, S.C. Tandon, Ved Marwah and other officers, among the public officers who held office in the administration during the violence. Its list calls him "former Lt. Governor (from 4-11-84)".
• 4 November 1984: Gavai had written his resignation on 3 November, and the Misra Commission records that Wali, then Home Secretary, was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor on the morning of 4 November. The government's Action Taken Report on the Nanavati Commission, as Outlook published its text, likewise says that Gavai was replaced by Wali on 4 November 1984.
• November 1985: Maps of India's list of the Lieutenant Governors of Delhi gives his term as 4 November 1984 to 15 November 1985, with H.L. Kapur following him on 16 November 1985.

In the record: Wali's part, as the Misra Commission reports it, was the alert of 31 October, his calls that morning and his appointment on 4 November. The Commission placed the delay in calling in the Army on the Lieutenant Governor and the Commissioner of Police, P.G. Gavai and S.C. Tandon. Wali became Lieutenant Governor on 4 November.