M. O. H. Farook

Who was M. O. H. Farook?

M. O. Hasan Farook Maricar was a three-time Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Pondicherry. He was the youngest chief minister of any state of India. He served from April 9, 1967 to March 6, 1968 and March 17, 1969 to January 3, 1974 and from 1985 to 1990 He was thrice elected to the Lok Sabha from Pondicherry in 1991, 1996 and 1999 and served as a Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Tourism during June 1991– December 1992. He participated in the struggle for liberation of Pondicherry as a student, during 1953–54 when Pondicherry was a French colony and served as a Member of the Central Haj Committee in Mumbai from 1975 to 2000. He was appointed as the Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in September 2004.

In 2010, Farook was appointed as Governor of Jharkhand. He was appointed as Governor of Kerala on 25 August 2011. He took office on 8 September 2011, but died in office a few months later, on 26 January 2012 at 9:10pm at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, due to multiple myeloma and kidney and other ailments. He is the second governor who died in office, after Sikander Bakht, and is the shortest served governor of Kerala.