- Satya Pal Malik, has alleged that the Prime Minister hushed him up, when he as governor reported that the blame for the Pulwama massacre lay on the Centre’s own lapses.
- In the interview ,Malik also said that the Prime Minister “does not hate corruption very much” and is “ill-informed”.
- Satya Pal Malik, considered as a rolling stone with an established record of jumping parties, started his political career with Charan Singh and travelled across to the BJP via various Janata or Socialist formations.
- Malik was appointed Bihar governor in 2017 and transferred to Jammu and Kashmir in 2018. When the state became a Union Territory, He was transferred to the Raj Bhavan in Goa.
- “CRPF people asked for an aircraft to ferry their people.The home ministry refused to give. They only needed five aircraft, they were not given aircraft,” Malik said.
Satya Pal Malik, trusted by the Narendra Modi government to preside over Jammu and Kashmir while it was grappling with fateful events, has alleged in an interview that the Prime Minister hushed him up by saying “tum abhi chup raho” when he as governor reported that the blame for the Pulwama massacre lay on the Centre’s own lapses.
In the interview with journalist Karan Thapar Malik also said that the Prime Minister “does not hate corruption very much” and is “ill-informed”.
Satya Pal Malik, considered as a rolling stone with an established record of jumping parties. He started his political career with Charan Singh in western Uttar Pradesh and travelled across to the BJP via various Janata or Socialist formations. He recently expressed the wish to campaign for the Congress in 2024, but said he would not join any political party or contest elections.
Malik was appointed Bihar governor by the Modi government in 2017 and transferred to Jammu and Kashmir in 2018. The Pulwama massacre took place in 2019. When the BJP returned to power in 2019, Malik was retained in that post and was in charge. When the state became a Union Territory, to be presided over by a lieutenant governor rather than a governor, Malik was transferred to the Raj Bhavan in Goa.
In the interview, Malik spoke about the bombing of the CRPF convoy in Pulwama in February 2019 that killed 40 jawans. “CRPF people asked for an aircraft to ferry their people because such a large convoy never goes by road. The home ministry refused to give. They only needed five aircraft, they were not given aircraft,” Malik said.
“I told it to the PM on the same evening. This is our fault. Had we given aircraft then this would not have happened. He told me, ‘Tum abhi chup raho….’ I had already said this to a couple of channels. He said, ‘Yeh sab mat bolo, yeh koi aur cheez hai. Hame bolne do….’ (National security adviser Ajit) Doval also told me, ‘Yeh sab mat boliye. Aap chup rahiye (Don’t say all this. Stay quiet)….’ Mujhe lag gaya tha ki ab yeh sara onus Pakistan ke taraf jana hai toh ‘chup rahiye’ (I realised that the onus was being shifted to Pakistan, so ‘stay quiet’),” Malik said.
He blamed the Union home ministry and the CRPF saying “None of the link roads to the highway on which the convoy was travelling had been blocked.” “It was 100 per cent an intelligence failure.” The car that rammed into the convoy, loaded with an estimated 300kg of explosives had moved around villages in the area for 10-12 days before the bombing and was undetected, Malik said.
Malik said he had not been told in advance about the Modi government’s plan to strip the state of its special status, but he knew it was coming since it had been on the agenda and had been talked about. Had he been consulted, he would have advised against downgrading Jammu and Kashmir to a Union Territory, Malik said.
In the interview, Malik repeated allegations he had made earlier about corruption in an insurance deal and a power project that he had stalled as governor. He named a business house, a former Jammu and Kashmir minister, and an RSS leader in connection with his allegations.
(With Input from Agency)
