Delhi has changed Narendra Modi for the worse, says Governor Satyapal Malik

Meghalaya Governor Satyapal Malik is back in the news. He stated on Friday at Rohtak that the Modi Government had ruined the farmers and that ‘Adani and Ambani’ were like rotten sacks of potato and did not deserve to be called ‘Seth’.

On Saturday he asserted that he had been given signals that he should stop speaking against the government and the Prime Minister and as a reward, he would be made the Vice-President.

On Sunday, speaking to Kumkum Chadha on Hindustan Times’ weekly talk show ‘The Interview’, Malik reiterated that the government was dragging its feet on the Minimum Support Price for crops in order to benefit the Adani Group.

This is the perception because Adani had built large godowns and bought agriculture produce at cheap rates. ‘Ab toh Desh Khareed raha hai’ (now he is buying up the country), he asserted.

Blaming politics and politicians for most of the ills in the country, he asserted that politics had now become a ‘business’ for most politicians. It was earlier a mission, then it became a career but now it is nothing but business, he told Chadha.

Contrary to BJP and the PM’s narrative that nothing has been achieved during the last 75 years, Malik maintained that the country has made remarkable progress after Independence but more was expected.

While Malik keeps saying that he has great respect for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his integrity, this is not the first time he has embarrassed the BJP and the Prime minister. At the meeting in Rohtak on Friday, however, warned farmers against getting swayed by communal rhetoric and divisive politics.

Malik was first appointed Governor of Bihar in September, 2017. Since then, he has been shifted thrice to Jammu & Kashmir, Goa and finally to Meghalaya in August, 2020. In addition, he has also held the additional charge of Odisha.

While state governors normally hold office for five years and Malik’s five-year term since September 2017 is already over, nobody knows how long he will continue in the Raj Bhavan. The Modi-led government and the BJP today are not known to take criticism kindly or lightly. Why then have they given Malik a long rope to embarrass them is a question that has been cropping up for the past several months.

What is Malik, a Jat born in Baghpat (Western Uttar Pradesh), up to? A socialist influenced by Ram Manohar Lohia in his youth, he joined the Congress, was Union minister in VP Singh-led government in 1989 before joining the BJP in 2004. Already on the wrong side of 75, his days in active politics are all but over. What then does he hope to achieve by embarrassing the PM?

He has managed to keep people guessing whether he is a pawn in the hands of the BJP or is actually a Trojan horse.

Here are some of the controversial statements made by him during the past few years:

1. There was no need to change the name of Rajpath to Kartavya Path.

2. There are many in the BJP who are worth raiding (by central agencies)

3. The Governors in J & K don’t do any work. They drink and play golf.

4. He said he was transferred from J & K because he had refused to clear files that involved large scale corruption

5. He was offered Rs 300 crore to clear those two files, he claimed

6. Transferred to Goa, he said there was rampant corruption in Goa