Amid a ranging controversy over his remarks on dissolving the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, Governor Satya Pal Malik has said the threat of transfer remains as it is not in one’s hands.
At a function organised to pay tributes to Congress leader and former minister Girdhari Lal Dogra on his 31st death anniversary here on Tuesday, he mentioned about the threat of transfer. “Girdhari Lal ji dedicated his life to the cause of the poor. As long as I am here, I will definitely come to pay my tributes to him… It (transfer) is not in one’s hands. I will not lose my job but the threat of transfer remains,” he said.
The transfer remark by the governor drew chuckles from the audience.
Malik said he was in Madhya Pradesh and was down with fever for the past two days. “But in politics, fever or injury is not taken note of and I returned to be part of this function which was very important for me, given the stature of the departed leader,” he said.
Malik at another event on Saturday had said had he “looked to Delhi”, he would have had to install a government led by Sajad Lone, a claim which the opposition said on Tuesday vindicated its charge he was under pressure to put in place a “BJP-supported government”.
Though there was no reaction from the Centre or the BJP to the claim made by Malik, who said history would have remembered him as a “dishonest man” if he had asked People’s Conference leader Lone to form the government, the chiefs of Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference –Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah– complimented the governor for not taking “instructions” from Delhi thereby stopping the installation of a government of the “BJP and its proxies”.
However, Lone claimed misrepresentation of facts and gross distortion of “certain events” and said “We remain committed to offering an alternative to the traditional political system of exploitation, arrogance, entitlement and blackmail and will leave no stone unturned to rid the state of the tyranny of dynastic misrule and despotism”. 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, he said, “Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh muje Lone ki sarkar banana padhti aur mein ithihas mein ek bayiman aadmi ke tor pe jana 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.
Governor’s rule was clamped in the state on June 19 for a six-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.
