JAIPUR: Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik has warned the BJP that it will not return to power unless the Centre listens to farmers protesting the new agricultural laws. “There is only one thing which will solve the entire issue. If the government agrees to give legal guarantee to the minimum support price mechanism, I will mediate and convince the farmers,” he told the media in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu on Sunday.
“I am with the farmers. I have fought with PM and home minister for them. I have told everyone that what they are doing is wrong and they should not do it,” Malik said. He also spoke on the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Oct 3, when eight people were killed after being knocked down by a vehicle carrying BJP workers. Farmers alleged that Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish was in one of the vehicles.
Responding to a question, he said Ajay Mishra should have been asked to resign. “It is completely wrong. Resignation of the minister should have been sought the day Lakhimpur Kheri incident took place. Otherwise, too, he doesn’t deserve to be a minister.” Malik, an outspoken Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh, alleged that BJP leaders can’t even enter any village in Meerut, Baghpat and Muzaffarnagar in UP, which is headed to polls in February.
Commenting on the killings of civilians in J&K, he said: “When I was Governor of J&K, nothing was happening. There was no stone pelting; nobody was dying. No terrorists dared enter within 50 km of Srinagar. Now, they are killing openly in the city. It is saddening.”