Former J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik. File Photo. (Twitter: Satya Pal Malik)
In what comes as embarrassment to the BJP government at the Centre, former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to speak of the security lapses that led to the 2019 Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel.
The prime minister instead wanted to put the onus (of the terror attack) on Pakistan so that the BJP could reap electoral gains, Malik, who was in office at that time, told the journalist Karan Thapar in an extensive interview conducted for The Wire.
Punching holes in the Union government’s Pulwama narrative, Malik said the 14 February, 2019, attack was consequent to “hamare galti“ (our mistakes).
He claimed to have informed the prime minister and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval about the failures that had led to the death of the 40 CRPF jawans
“I remember it clearly,” the last Governor of undivided Jammu Kashmir said, “I spoke to the prime minister who was then outside the Jim Corbett National Park.”
Malik claimed that he told the prime minister about the failures that had led to the terror attack. Modi asked him to keep mum, Malik claimed in the interview.
He added that Doval, too, asked him to keep quiet, he told Thapar in The Wire interview.
Modi was shooting in the national park with TV host Bear Grylls for Discovery Channel’s “Man Vs Wild” show when the jawans were killed.
A CRPF internal report, too, had blamed a “massive intelligence failure”, contradicting the Union home ministry. The ministry had in June 2019 denied intelligence failure and said, “All agencies are working in a coordinated manner and the intelligence inputs are shared among various agencies in real time.”
When asked by Thapar about his statement in another interview that the CRPF convey’s route was not sanitised and there was no proper security, Malik said he was standing by his words.
There were eight to 10 link roads in that area (where the blast occurred). None of them was manned, the former Governor said.
Pointing at the “terrible” intelligence failure, Malik said the car ferrying 300 kilograms of RDX from Pakistan roamed the roads and villages of Jammu and Kashmir for 10-12 days without being detected.
“Everybody failed. Forty valuable jawans were sacrificed due to incompetence of the Indian system. The CRPF was left to itself,” he said.
Malik also said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh should have owned up the moral responsibility. He further said he would have resigned if he was the defence minister.
The former Governor claimed in the interview that he was kept in the dark about the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
“No one in Delhi told me,” he said.
The then Governor came to know of the central government’s plan only around 4 pm on 4 August 2019, a day before the Article was scrapped.
The bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir was an unnecessary “division” and “demotion”, since it was downgraded it to an Union Territory. This, the former governor felt, help the Centre in remote controlling the police.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh in August 2019.
Terming the prime minister “100 percent ignorant” and “ill-informed” about Kashmir, Malik demanded the immediate restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.
“It’s your promise,” he said, referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement. “It’s necessary to restore the people’s faith in the government.”
According to Malik, Modi’s attitude has been “mast hain apne mein — to hell with it! He didn’t know the real problem in Kashmir”. Referring to an earlier interview with an English daily, Malik said 50 percent of Kashmir’s problems were created in Delhi.
Citing his transfer from Goa to Meghalaya, Malik said he could “safely say” that the prime minister has “no real problem with corruption”.
He claimed that he was shunted out of Goa after he had flagged instances of corruption. “Ask any child in Goa about the chief minister’s corruption,” he said.
Malik also said that RSS national executive committee member Ram Madhav sought to intercede and get a hydro-electric scheme and a Reliance Insurance scheme cleared.
He said Madhav met him at 7 am the day after he had already turned down the insurance scheme and appeared upset that he had killed the proposal. Malik recalled people then telling him that clearing the two projects would make him richer by ₹300 crore.
Following the revelation, Madhav sent Malik a legal notice, accusing him of making defamatory statements and seeking an apology, on Thursday, 13 April.
On Adani issue, Malik said it has done severe damage to the government. “If I were in his (prime minister’s) place I would have abandoned him.”
He even warned that Adani issue could finish off the government if the Opposition came together to take on Modi.
“The combination of one-to-one fight and Adani issue can finish off BJP in 2024,” Malik said when Thapar recalled how VP Singh dethroned Rajiv Gandhi over the Bofors scandal in 1989.
“People feel that Modi has an interest in Adani’s investments,” he replied to a specific query on whether the masses believe Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that ₹20,000 crore had been pumped into the Adani Group through shell companies.
Not allowing Rahul Gandhi to speak in Parliament was “shameful” and it should not have happened in a parliamentary democracy, Malik said, while condemning Speaker Om Birla.
The former Governor proceeded to narrate how his appointment with the President was cancelled while he was on his way to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He alleged even the President’s appointments are vetted and cleared by the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Is she (President Droupadi Murmu) a puppet of the prime minister,” Karan Thapar asked. “Of course,” Malik replied. “Nothing is impossible here.”
