He, however, says his remarks about ‘New Delhi’s interest in making Sajjad Lone the CM’ won’t cost him his job.
SRINAGAR: Right from the day since Satya Pal Malik landed here as Governor, his interviews and remarks have triggered controversies. The latest from him is his hint that he may be shifted out of the state after his recent remarks about “New Delhi’s interest in making People’s Conference (PC) chairman Sajjad Gani Lone the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Malik said that though “honesty will not cost him his job”, the threat of transfer will remain. He, however, assured the people of the state that he will try his best to provide them corruption-free administration.
His earlier remarks had come while he was defending his decision to dissolve the state Assembly. He had said that had he “looked towards New Delhi, Lone would have been the CM” by now. Malik had claimed that he “did not wait for any signal from New Delhi and dissolved the House to prevent horse-trading with chaos on the streets” of Kashmir.
While Lone himself criticised the Governor for his remarks, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah have praised the Governor for “not looking to New Delhi” to take a decision about dissolution of the House. The state unit of BJP was, however, left red-faced after Malik made the remarks.
Earlier to that also, Malik had accused PDP and NC of “boycotting the elections to the local bodies to appease the separatists.” He had later claimed that both the parties were however “repenting” over their decision to boycott these elections.
Political observers say that Malik has a habit of shooting from his hip at everyone, including New Delhi, and later putting his foot in the mouth, they feel that he does have a brief from New Delhi to provide corruption-free governance without any interference from the Centre.