SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik hinted on Wednesday that he may be shifted out of the state following his remarks that New Delhi wanted to see Peoples Conference leader Sajad Lone as Chief Minister.
Speaking at a function marking the death anniversary of senior Congress leader Girdhari Lal Dogra, Malik said, “As long as I am here, I’m here. It is not in my hands. But the threat of transfer is there. I don’t know when I will be transferred from here. I will not lose my job, but as long as I am here, I assure the people that whenever you call me, I will come.”
Malik publicly admitted on November 24 in Gwalior that had he looked for directions from Delhi on how to tackle the political crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, he would have had to install BJP-backed Sajad Lone as the Chief Minister. Later, he took a U-turn while speaking to a news channel and said that there was no political pressure or interference from the Centre.
But he did not want to do that, Malik said. Following his remarks, Raj Bhawan issued a statement saying that while dissolving the state Assembly, the Governor took an objective and impartial decision.
“There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter and some news channels are misinterpreting the Governor’s statement and putting things out of context to convey that there was pressure from the central government,” the statement had said.
On November 21, Malik had abruptly dissolved the Assembly evening after Peoples’ Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti staked claim to form a government along with the support of her arch-rival Omar Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) and the Congress. They claimed the support of 56 lawmakers in the 87-member state assembly. A number of leaders have condemned the governor’s decision to dissolve the assembly abruptly while terming the decision as a “politically-motivated move.”
Satya Pal Malik was sworn-in as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir in August. Malik was the former governor of Bihar. Malik had ended the five-decade-long practice of retired bureaucrats being appointed to the post. (PTK)
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