Malik, J&K’s first politician-governor since the militancy years began, is a soft-spoken man who worked closely with Mufti Sayeed.
New Delhi: The Centre’s decision to appoint Satya Pal Malik as the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, the first politician to hold the post since militancy began in the Valley, may have been prompted by inputs from outgoing governor N.N. Vohra and other stakeholders.
Highly-placed sources told ThePrint that with the Valley on the boil, Vohra was among those who pitched for a political appointee for the post. They said that in late April-May, key functionaries of the Union government, including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, sought Vohra’s inputs on the qualities a successor should have.
The question, which was also broached with some key players in the Valley and Kashmir experts in Delhi, was whether the next governor of the militancy-hit state should be a retired Army or police officer or a bureaucrat such as Vohra with experience in handling law and order matters?
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The highly-placed sources said Vohra, whose second term as governor was to end in June, told the Centre that Kashmir was at a juncture where every signal would be viewed closely and that the appointment of a retired Army or police officer might be interpreted as the government looking to use strong-arm tactics in the state.
Sources said that even the Centre’s interlocutor to the state, Dineshwar Sharma, favoured sending a political person, and not a hawk, as governor. Incidentally, Sharma himself was in contention for the job though it was never made official.
A number of candidates
Malik’s appointment comes as a surprise as his name was not among the list of probable candidates for the post.
The Centre had initially drawn up a list, which included at least two retired Army officers, both with extensive tenures in the Valley, but the list was junked after it received negative feedback.
Apart from Sharma, others in the running were former Intelligence Bureau chief, Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain, who was General Officer Commanding in Jammu and Kashmir in 2010-2011, and former Union Home and Finance secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, who is now the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
There were many who cited Vohra’s excellent track record — he has been running the state since the Mehbooba Mufti government bowed out of office after the BJP walked out of the alliance — as an administrator to buttress their point on why Kashmiris would prefer a politician than an Army man.
On Tuesday, the Narendra Modi government decided to shift Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik to J&K as Vohra’s replacement.
The new governor
A former BJP vice-president, Malik hails from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He has shifted his political allegiance several times in the past, having begun as a member of former Prime Minister, the late Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Lok Dal. Charan Singh is the father of Ajit Singh, the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief.
Before joining the BJP, Malik had stints in the Congress, V.P. Singh’s Jan Morcha, and the Janata Dal – the political avatar of the Jan Morcha and the Lok Dal (Ajit).
In the V.P. Singh government, he was Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism, a job that he got due to his closeness to V.P. Singh and Arun Nehru.
He is also known to have developed close ties with the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was a Home Minister in V.P. Singh’s cabinet. It is this perceived closeness to the late Mufti Sayeed, whose daughter Mehbooba Mufti recently resigned as J&K chief minister, which appears to have tilted the scales in his favour.
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“He is soft-spoken and has worked closely with Mufti sahib. We hope he will be able to improve the situation in J&K, which had worsened under the previous government. The outgoing governor has laid a strong foundation and things are already looking up. Malik sahib can continue with the healing touch policy,” said a senior government of India functionary in the know of things.
The BJP also feels that Malik would be able to bridge the trust deficit between the saffron party and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP.