Satya Pal Malik, the last governor of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) before it was divided and converted to a Union territory, has made some hard-hitting comments which could have political ramifications for the Narendra Modi government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In an explosive interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, he said, “Mein safely keh sakta hoon Prime Minister ko corruption se bahut nafrat nahin hain” (‘I can safely say the PM has no real problem with corruption’).
Malik, who was governor during the Pulwama terrorist attack of February 2019 and the abrogation of Article 370 in August that year, also said the Prime Minister is “ill-informed” and “ignorant” about Kashmir and told him not to speak about the Union home ministry’s security lapses which led to the horrific terrorist attack on soldiers in Pulwama in February 2019. He said removing Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood was a mistake and it should be restored immediately.
In an extensive interview, Malik revealed that the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force convoy in Pulwama was a result of “incompetence” by the CRPF and the home ministry. Rajnath Singh was the home minister at the time of the incident. Malik gave details of how the CRPF had asked for aircraft to transport its jawans but was refused by the Union home ministry. He also spoke of how the route was not sanitised effectively.
More importantly, he said all of these lapses were raised by him directly when Modi called him shortly after the Pulwama attack. He said the Prime Minister told him to keep quiet about this and not tell anyone. Malik said that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval also told him to keep quiet and not talk about it. Malik said he immediately realised that the intention was to put the blame on Pakistan and derive electoral benefit for the government and the BJP.
Malik also said that there was grave intelligence failure in the Pulwama incident because the car carrying 300 kilograms of RDX explosives had come from Pakistan but was travelling around the roads and villages of Jammu and Kashmir for 10-15 days without being detected and without anyone knowing.
Malik gave details of how, when he was governor of J&K, he was approached by the BJP-RSS leader Ram Madhav to clear a hydro-electric scheme and a Reliance insurance scheme but he refused to do so, saying “Mein ghalat kaam nahin karoonga (I won’t do a wrong thing)”. Malik said at the time people were telling him that he could get Rs 300 crore for clearing both schemes.
Speaking about Modi, Malik said the Prime Minister is not at all concerned about corruption. He said he was removed as governor of Goa in August 2020 and sent to Meghalaya because he had brought to the Prime Minister’s attention several instances of corruption which the government chose to ignore. He alleged that the people around the Prime Minister are indulging in corruption and often use the PMO’s name. Malik said he had brought all of this to Modi’s attention but added that the PM did not seem to care.
He said the Prime Minister’s handling of the BBC was a terrible mistake and was sharply critical of the PM’s and ministers’ treatment of Muslims. He said the Prime Minister has suffered serious damage because of the Adani scandal and added that this has seeped down to village levels and could seriously damage the BJP in the next elections, particularly if the opposition can field a single candidate against the BJP.
Malik felt that refusing Rahul Gandhi permission to speak in parliament was an unprecedented mistake. Rahul Gandhi has raised the right questions on the Adani scandal, he said, which clearly the Prime Minister cannot answer.
Malik also accused the government of appointing ‘third rate people’ as governors. The interview ends with Malik confirming that he stands by everything he has said about the Prime Minister and is not worried about any repercussions.
Watch the interview here: