Centre would’ve wanted Lone govt in J&K, says Governor Malik, explaining why he dissolved assembly. Omar Abdullah & Mehbooba Mufti praise move.
New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has gone from villain to hero in the matter of a week after a video of him appeared on social media in which he is seen hinting that the Modi government would have wanted him to let the faction led by Sajad Lone to form the government in the state.
Lone’s People’s Conference is backed by the BJP in the Valley.
Malik had come in for severe criticism from several quarters, particularly Kashmir politicians, when he dissolved the state assembly on 21 November after rejecting competing claims — one by the Congress, NC and PDP together and the other by Lone — to form the government.
But the reactions have changed drastically since the video clip of Malik explaining the rationale behind his decision to dissolve the assembly was widely shared Tuesday.
Former chief minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah was among the first to hail Malik.
“My compliments to Governor Malik for not looking to Delhi & for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & its proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money,” he tweeted.
He had questioned governor’s decision of dissolving the assembly, saying it couldn’t have been a “coincidence”.
“I really don’t know what to make of Governor Sb revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & its proxies were desperate to form a government through horse-trading & use of money but we’ve also never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the centre,” Omar Abdullah said in another tweet.
Mehbooba too appeared to laud Malik.
“Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sb refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of the assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state,” she tweeted.
Also read: One solution governor Satya Pal Malik failed to consider in Jammu and Kashmir
What Malik said in video
The governor, who was addressing a convocation ceremony at ITM University in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior Saturday, is heard saying he didn’t want to be a “dishonest person”.
“Let me clear it once again. If I had asked Delhi, then I would have to form Lone’s government and I would have become a dishonest person in the books of history,” Malik is heard saying in the clip released on 26 November.
“Thus, I finished the matter there only. No matter how much abuse I face, I am convinced that whatever I did was right.”
The governor goes on to say that he did not even consider asking the opinion of anyone in Delhi.
“I didn’t consider asking someone in Delhi as I had met everyone two days before. Had I asked them, then it could have been possible that they might have asked me to let Sajad Lone take the oath,” he is heard saying.
“Sajad claimed that he would be able to prove majority in six days. Is it my work to let you take the oath and then break MLAs? And the same was the condition with others. Ghulam Nabi Azad told me that he hadn’t made a decision yet, Farooq Abdullah said that he will let me know the next day,” he is heard saying in the speech made on 24 November.
Malik also claimed that the NC’s Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti had wanted the assembly dissolved.
“You should have seen the statements of Omar and Mehbooba Mufti on the same day. Both of them said that they wanted the assembly to be dissolved,” he said. “They had been requesting me for the last 15 days to dissolve the assembly.”
Also read: Governor Malik jumped the gun in dissolving J&K assembly, it’s advantage Congress-NC
If this is an accurate recital of facts, His Excellency has acted with sagacity. That the PDP, in conjunction with the Congress and the NC – limited to outside support – had a convincing majority is not in doubt. Two letters would have sufficed. There would have been no commerce, simply a political understanding, possibly of limited tenure. 2. However, for Shri Sajad Lone to become CM would have been a repeat of what happened with BSY in Karnataka. Kashmir’s anti defection law is stringent, so some very messy events may have been triggered. However, more than the challenge of constructing a majority, the real mess would have been the working of such a ramshackle arrangement. Not a propitious time to be so cynical at a difficult time for Kashmir, when even holding the Lok Sabha election will be a challenge.