In an interview with Karan Thapar from the leftist propaganda portal The Wire, the former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik confessed that he made up the statement about Union Home Minister Amit Shah last year. The interview was shared by The Wire on Friday, April 14.
Satyapal Malik had said last year that Amit Shah told him that Prime Minister Modi has ‘lost his mind’ and asked Malik to keep meeting him.
As Karan Thapar quoted Malik’s controversial statement from last year wherein he said while talking about the farmers’ protest, “Maine kaha aapke liye toh mare the, aap raja bane huai ho unki wajah se. Khair, jhagda ho gaya mera. Unhone kaha tum Amit Shah se milo. Mai Amit Shah se mila, usne kaha ‘Satya Pal, iski akal maar rakhi hai logon ne. Tum befikar raho, milte raho ye kisi na kisi din samajh mein ajaye’ (I told him you are king because of them. I also had an argument with him (PM Modi). He told me to meet Amit Shah and I did. He said ‘Satya Pal, he has been misguided by some people. You don’t worry about it, you keep meeting. This will be understood one day).”
To this, Satyapal Malik not only admitted that he made up the statement but also withdrew it. He said, “I absolutely lied about Amit Shah related statement. He never said anything to me. I take this back, he never said anything.”
Satyapal Malik further said that what he said about Amit Shah’s words against Modi, was ‘galat’ (wrong), when Karan Thapar asked the same question again.
Malik made the controversial comments against PM Modi in January last year while addressing a public event in Haryana’s Dadri. Malik had claimed that during a meeting with the PM, he had raised the issue of farmers’ death and the PM had responded ‘arrogantly’. Malik claimed that his discussion became an argument within 5 minutes and when he said that over 500 farmers have died, (in the protests), the PM became angry and asked “Did they die because of me?”
These statements by Malik had sparked a political war of words at the time. However, a year later it turns out that Satyapal Malik’s words can not be relied upon.
During the interview with Thapar, Malik also blamed ‘laparavahi’ (negligence) on the part of the central government for the deadly Pulwama suicide bombing attack by 22-year-old Adil Ahmad Dar. The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist from Kakapora in Jammu and Kashmir, had rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying the CRPF personnel. 40 of our jawans were martyred in the attack.
Malik also alleged that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had denied granting aircraft to the CRPF for the movement of the soldiers. In February 2019, some media reports had also made similar claims, however, MHA had back then refuted the claims that the ministry denied the air-transit facility for CRPF personnel.
In a statement, MHA had stated, “In Jammu and Kashmir sector, air courier service for transportation of Jawans have been in operation for quite some time. This included initially the Jammu-Srinagar-Jammu Sector. In addition, air support is provided by IAF as and when required. Several sorties were run for CRPF in January 2019.”
Both Karan Thapar and Satyapal Malik expressed an apparent admiration for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the interview asserting that his popularity has skyrocketed after the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
By the end of the interview, Satyapal Malik also made unsubstantiated claims about the Indian President. Malik claimed that the President of India Droupadi Murmu is not free to meet whom she wants, adding that the appointment list is sent to the Prime Minister’s office and cleared by the PMO and then the President meets people.