Governor Malik: ‘Had I Looked to Delhi, Sajad Lone Would Have Been CM’

JAMMU —  In remarks that can embarrass the Centre, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has said had he looked to Delhi, he would have had to install a government led by Sajad Lone, and history would have remembered him as a “dishonest man”.

Malik had abruptly dissolved the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly last week after the PDP staked claim to form a government with the backing of rival NC and the Congress. This was followed by another bid from the two-member People’s Conference led by Lone which claimed the support of the BJP and 18 legislators from other parties.

During a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior on Saturday, he said,”Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jata…(Had I looked to Delhi, I would have had to install a government led by Lone, and history would have remembered me as a dishonest man).” “Therefore, I ended up the matter. Whosoever wants to scold, can do so now but I am convinced that whatever I did, was right,” he said in his address after noted journalist Ravish Kumar had pointed out in his speech about faulty fax machine.

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The governor also took a dig at the Congress, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference and said that if they were so keen on forming the government, they could have come to Jammu a day earlier and met him.

“It was an Eid holiday and this is an auspicious day. Did they expect the governor to stand by the fax machine and wait for their fax,” Malik said.

“If PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti and NC leader Omar Abdullah were serious about forming a government (by joining hands) in Jammu and Kashmir, they should have rung me up, or sent me a letter,” he said.

After dissolving the state Assembly, both NC vice president Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mufti expressed happiness and claimed that this was what they wanted, Malik said.

“I returned at 4 PM from Delhi and I got a briefing from intelligence officials about the situation. I found it needless to talk to Delhi because two days ago I had met them all,” he added.

The governor said that without seeking any advice or direction or holding any discussion with Delhi, he took the decision of dissolving the assembly.

Malik said that as per the state Constitution he did not have to take permission from the president or Parliament.

On remarks of the Bharatiya Janata Party that the NC and the PDP attempted to form a coalition government on the direction of Pakistan, he said that he cannot blame Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah because they were children of Sheikh Abdullah, who “chose India” and were nationalists. “Mufti Sayeed was Indian and nobody can suspect his nationalism and no one suspects his daughter’s credentials as a nationalist,” he added. The governor said Lone had been saying that he had sent me his letter on WhatsApp and Mufti said she tweeted staking a claim for government formation.

“I never knew that governments were formed on WhatsApp and tweet messages. Staking claim for the formation of the government is not made on WhatsApp,” he said.

“I was watching this all for past 15 days. I was confident that no one had a majority. If I would have called one side, there would have been a major drama. There would have been use of money and it would have created a chaos,” Malik added.

Governor’s rule was clamped in the state on June 19 for a 6-month period following the collapse of the PDP-BJP coalition government after the saffron party withdrew support. The state assembly was also kept in suspended animation so that political parties could explore the possibility of forming a new government.

Good’ Malik Refused Centre’s Dictation: Mehbooba, Omar  

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PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday “congratulated” Governor Satya Pal Malik for not “looking to Delhi” on government formation in the state and stopping the installation of a BJP government.

In a tweet, the former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said it was good to see that the governor refused to “take dictation from Delhi”.

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“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 said.

Addressing a function in Gwalior on Saturday, the governor reportedly said he dissolved the state Assembly as he did not want to go down in history as a “dishonest man”.

“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,” Omar wrote on his Twitter handle.

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The National Conference leader expressed amusement over the remarks made by Malik in Gwalior the other day.

“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 tweeted.

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