NEW DELHI: He is steeped in socialist traditions but his political career has lately flourished in the saffron camp. This apparent contradiction perhaps explains why Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik doesn’t fear to speak his mind, the latest being on Tuesday when he said he may keep his job as the Governor but could be transferred any time.
“I don’t know how long I’m here. I may not be stripped of my position, but I don’t know how long I will stay in the current assignment,” Malik said in Jammu. Last week, while defending his decision to dissolve the J&K Assembly, he told students of a private engineering college in Gwalior that People’s Conference leader Sajjad Lone would have been the Chief Minister had he toed the Centre’s line. “Let me make it clear that had I looked towards Delhi, then I would have had to instal Lone’s government,” he said. Malik’s associates said he still carries the socialist “flamboyance,” which explains why he doesn’t bend over backwards to save his chair but in the process ties himself in knots.
Past socialist politicians have demonstrated the art of making swift adjustments, sometimes contradicting themselves in order to suit expectations. “Malik plunged into politics in the shadow of Ram Manohar Lohia and Raj Narain. Afterwards he became close to former Prime Minister Charan Singh,” said a senior socialist politician with a parallel career trajectory in western Uttar Pradesh. “For three-and-a-half decades, Malik idolised (Sheikh) Abdullah of Jammu and Kashmir, swore by Article 370, only to don the saffron robe in 2004 when he contested on a BJP ticket against Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). Malik is currently caught in a moral dilemma,” he added.
Another contemporary politician said Malik has tested all political waters of the country. “As part of the socialist movement, Malik plunged into the JP (Jayaprakash Narayan) movement, joined hands with V P Singh, went to the Samajwadi Party and even spent time in the Congress,” he said. Malik was apparently picked by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for the hot seat to replace long serving former Governor N N Vohra. Malik was seen as the right man to break the ice in the Kashmir Valley and to give a fillip to the Centre’s hopes of fighting alienation among the youth.
