Srinagar: A startling revelation by governor Satya Pal Malik suggesting that the Centre wants to see Sajad Lone as the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir has triggered a massive political uproar.
Malik’s remark that had he looked to Delhi, he would have had to “install” a government led by Lone has provided fresh ammunition to political opponents of the Bhartiya Janta Party, who have been targetting the party for trying to “scuttle democracy” and install a government through an “unconstitutional act”.
Later, in a move intended to minimise the damage and put an end to the embarrassment it has caused for the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Raj Bhavan retracted the statement.
Lone, at the centre of the controversy, has questioned the governor over “misrepresentation of facts” and sought an end to “vilification and distortion campaign”.
Another twist to the story came when the governor spoke about the “threat of transfer”, barely three months after he entered Raj Bhavan.
Governor’s bombshell
The governor made the controversial remarks during a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior held on November 24 where he was the chief guest.
In a video clip of the function that has gone viral on social media, he talks about ongoing local body elections in the state, the row over the fax machine in Raj Bhavan and the security scenario in Kashmir.
Then he dropped the bombshell:
“Aur phir ek baar mein clear kardu ki Delhi ki taraf dekhta toh mujhe (Sajad) Lone ki sarkar banana padhta aur mein ithihas mein ek bayemman aadmi ke tor pe jata. (I want to make clear it again that 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.”
Also read: J&K Assembly Dissolution Sends Ripples Across Political Spectrum
“Lahaza meinnay es mamlay ko hi khatam kar diya. Jo gali deyngay deyngay lakin mein convinced hou ki mein nay theek kaam kiya…(Therefore I ended this matter. People may speak ill about me, let them, but I am convinced that I did the right thing),” the governor said, as the audience responds with applause.
Though the governor had earlier reiterated that the assembly won’t be dissolved, last week he dissolved the assembly after PDP president Mehbooba Mufti staked claim to form a government, with support from the National Conference and the Congress. There was a separate bid from the two-member People’s Conference led by Sajad Lone which claimed support of BJP and “18 legislators from other parties”.
While the BJP welcomed the dissolution of the assembly, which still had more than two years to go, parties in opposition to the BJP said the decision was “politically motivated” and called it “murder of democracy”.
J&K governor Satyapal Malik. Credit: PTI
The Congress had urged the PDP to move court to challenge dissolution of the house while the National Conference had said the decision to go to court has to taken by the PDP. However, Mehbooba Mufti made it clear on November 26 that she won’t go to the court and would instead prefer to go the people’s court.
“…I didn’t found it necessary to talk to Delhi (on assembly dissolution), because two days ago I had met them all, and had I asked them it was a probability that they would have asked me to let Sajad Lone take oath because Sajad Lone had told me that if he is given six days he will prove majority. Is it my job that I let you take oath and then allow you to go for horse trading? The others were facing the same situation. Ghulam Nabi Azad (of Congress) told media that evening that they are yet to take decision (on supporting PDP) and Farooq Abdullah sahab who was in Delhi said they will take decision tomorrow,” the governor had said.
An angry Lone
Soon after the news about the governor’s explosive speech became public, Lone, who is an ally of BJP, said there has been “misrepresentation of facts” and “gross distortion of certain events that unfolded in J&K by some people and unfortunately, especially from his excellency the governor of J&K”.
The governor had said that neither Mufti nor Lone were serious about government formation, referring to PDP’s president’s tweet that her party had staked claim to form government and People’s Conference chairman’s WhatsApp message to “PA of former governor” staking claim to form the government.
The separatist-turned politician, however, rebutted the governor to “put the record straight”. “I was the first one to talk to him (the governor) on the phone and tell him that I want to stake a claim for government formation,” Lone said in a statement.
Also read: Sajad Lone Stakes Claim to Form Govt in J&K with BJP Support
The drama began after that. The governor, according to Lone, asked him to send a fax. But both Lone and Mehbooba claimed that the machine at Raj Bhawan was not working. “For three hours, we tried to unsuccessfully send a fax to the Raj Bhawan. The fax would not go through. I called the governor’s secretary who had earlier put me on to the governor. He would not take the call,” Lone said.
During this period, Lone said, Mehbooba had put her letter claiming support of NC and Congress and staking claim to form government, on Twitter. “I do not know whether she staked the claim on the basis of a potential claim that we were trying to make, or if she staked the claim on her own. There are some people who believe that on the receipt of information that we are going to stake a claim, Mehbooba Mufti immediately put up a claim on Twitter. This is the series of events,” he asserted.
Mehbooba Mufti. Credit: PTI
“Whenever I said that I would stake a claim it would be done under the ambit of a constitutional provision and would be totally legitimate. I don’t know since when they have made constitutional provisions and solutions illegal – that is for the governor to clarify,” Lone said. “We had the numbers and would have emerged victorious in a constitutionally legitimate method. There should be no doubt about this.”
“…I cannot allow a misrepresentation of facts on a daily basis and this vilification and distortion campaign has to end. The facts needed to be put on record and it is for others to uphold the truth,” Lone says in the statement, adding his party remains committed to offering an alternative to “traditional political system of exploitation, arrogance, entitlement and blackmail”.
‘BJP’s sinister design exposed’
Hitting out at BJP, the state Congress said the governor’s remarks in Gwalior prove that he was under pressure to install BJP-supported government in J&K. “The cat is finally out of the bag now that Modi government was putting pressure on the governor to install a chief minister with backing of BJP by arranging numbers through horse trading,” said state congress chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir.
The governor, Mir said, resorted to “unconstitutional act” of dissolving the assembly in haste without exercising constitutional obligation of inviting single largest party, claiming strength, to prove majority on floor of the House. “The governor has exposed the Centre’s sinister design of installing an illegitimate government by horse trading and coercion,” said Mir.
Recalling the statement of the governor earlier this month that the assembly shall not be dissolved but kept under suspended animation even for full term Mir said his volte-face showed that how Delhi was trying to “scuttle democracy” in the state.
Former chief ministers, Omar Abdullah took to Twitter to hit out at the BJP: “I really don’t know what to make of Governor Sb revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & it’s 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,” he wrote.
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 & it’s proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 27, 2018
In another tweet Omar complimented the governor for not looking to Delhi and for not taking their “instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & it’s proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money”.
Also read: PDP Announces It Will Be Forming an Alliance With Congress, NC in J&K
Mehbooba too praised the governor for “refusing to take dictation from Delhi”. “Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sahib refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented, given the story of democracy in the state.” she wrote on twitter.
Governor ‘rebuts’ his own statement
As the governor’s remarks led to the political war, Raj Bhavan late issued a clarification saying the governor had no pressure from the Centre while taking the decision to dissolve the assembly and he acted in an “objective and impartial manner”.
“There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter and some News Channels are ‘misinterpreting’ governor’s statement and putting them out of context to convey that there was pressure from the Central Government,” he said.
“Governor Malik follows Imran Khan, takes another U-turn, rebuts his own statement,” senior journalist Naseer A. Ganai wrote on Facebook.
Another twist – the ‘transfer threat’
While the controversy over his Gwalior statement has yet to die down, the governor made another controversial statement this week that isn’t likely to go down well with the Centre, one about “transfer threat”.
“I don’t know when I will be transferred from here. I will not lose my job, but the threat of transfer is there. As long as I’m here, I assure you people that whenever you call me, I will come here to pay my tributes,” said Malik, addressing a function to mark death anniversary of Congress leader Girdhari Lal Dogra.