Balmiki Prasad Singh (born 1 January 1942) was the 14th Governor of Sikkim, India. He is a retired IAS officer and has written books and articles relating to Indian culture, in particular the culture of North-East India. Among his prominent books are Bahudha and the post 9/11 World and The problem of change: a study of North East India. Education and family background Singh was born on 1 January 1942 in Begusarai, Bihar. He was educated in a village school and later at the universities of Patna and Oxford. He passed his M.A. in political science from University of Patna in 1960, standing First Class First with record marks and also winning several gold medals. He became a lecturer in the Post-Graduate Department of Political Science at Patna University at the age of nineteen. Singh hails from a family of activists for Indian independence. His father, Harbansh Narayan Singh was an activist who had participated in the Quit India Movement (1942-1944) and courted imprisonment during this period. Singh was married to Karuna on 10 March 1961 at Patna while they were in their teens. While B.P. Singh hails from a family of activists (not political leaders), the father of Karuna was Rai Bahadur Ganesh Prasad Rai, who retired as Commissioner in the Government of Bihar. Singh and Karuna have three children: two daughters, Sumita and Preeti and Rajeev, a son and six grandchildren. Administrative service Singh was appointed in 1964 to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).A former IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Singh was posted in North Lakhimpur and Tezpur as a young district officer. He also held the posts of DC, Kamrup from 1973–75 and Home Commissioner, Assam from 1980-82. He had another stint in Assam from 1990-92 before being posted to Union Home Ministry. Over the past four decades, Shri B.P. Singh has held a variety of important positions within Assam as well as in the Government of India. He was Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forest (1993–95), Culture Secretary (1995–97) and Home Secretary (1997–99) in Government of India. After an incident involving the extension or resignation of the celebrated Indian Police Service officer Kishore Kunal, he was removed from the post of Home Secretary by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was displeased with his conduct and made the Health Secretary. During this tenure, a conflict again arose between Kunal and him when Singh