New Delhi: The former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satyapal Malik passed away Tuesday at 79. He had also served as the Governor of Meghalaya, Goa, Odisha and Bihar. He had a long history of diabetic kidney disease and hypertension.
Satyapal Malik began his political career as a student union leader in Meerut in 1968-69. He switched parties multiple times, moving from Charan Singh’s Lok Dal to Congress, Janata Dal, and BJP. Throughout his career, he continued to be a political leader at heart, even as Governor.
His rebellious nature and outbursts while working with the Modi government created significant controversy. Interestingly, two leaders from the Samajwadi Party, Satyapal Malik and Jagdeep Dhankhar, were adopted by BJP but both ultimately rebelled against the establishment and distanced themselves from the Modi administration.
Satyapal Malik entered the electoral arena in 1974, winning the assembly election from Bagpat on a ticket from Choudhary Charan Singh’s Kranti Dal. He later aligned with Charan Singh and became the General Secretary of Bharatiya Lok Dal. In 1980, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha on a Lok Dal ticket, but in 1984, he joined Congress and entered the Rajya Sabha again in 1986.
Following V.P. Singh’s revolt against Rajiv Gandhi, he joined V.P. Singh’s Jan Morcha and contested on a Janata Dal ticket from Aligarh, serving as the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.
In 2004, Malik joined BJP and contested the Lok Sabha election against RLD’s Ajit Singh from Bagpat but was unsuccessful. In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Ajit Singh received 3,50,000 votes, while Satyapal Malik finished in third place.
However, due to his close ties with Rajnath Singh, he was appointed BJP’s UP President during 2005-2006 and took charge of the BJP’s farmer wing. He was later appointed the national vice president of the party during Rajnath Singh’s tenure. A former BJP minister stated, “During the times of Advani and Rajnath Singh, BJP faced a shortage of Jat representation in UP, prompting the party to promote Malik to counter Ajit Singh, leading to his elevation as vice president. It was during this period that he grew close to Modi.”
But after that, the relationship went downhill.
When Modi became the prime minister in 2014, he appointed Malik to oversee the Land Acquisition Bill. But his panel’s report opposed the bill, prompting the government to place both the bill and the report in cold storage.
One BJP member recounted an occasion when Arun Jaitley was speaking to journalists and leaders, casually inquiring about the whereabouts of Satyapal Malik. Soon after, Malik was appointed Governor of Bihar in October 2017. Known for his outspoken views, Malik accused politicians in the state of corruption, even those in the BJP-JDU alliance.
The BJP government at the Centre then transferred Malik to Jammu and Kashmir before the abrogation of Article 370. He served as governor during the Pulwama attack and the abrogation of Article 370, during which he accused the Modi government of wrong-doing. (Ironically, Malik died on 5 August, the day Article 370 was annotated.)
After his stint as J&K Governor, Malik accused the Modi administration of exploiting the Pulwama terror attack for political advantage. “I learned that the martyrs were being transported to the airport. I went directly to the airport, but they confined me. I had to struggle to get out. I was locked in with a key,” he recounted, adding, “I felt as though a spectacle was being staged.”
Criticising the Prime Minister for not responding to his calls during his tenure as governor, Malik stated, “On the day this incident occurred, he was filming at the Jim Corbett National Park. I attempted to reach him several times, but he was unavailable. He called me around 5-6 pm and inquired about the situation,” he said. “I informed him that the attack occurred due to our own oversights. He promptly instructed me to remain silent and not discuss the issue. NSA Doval, with whom I have studied, also silenced me,” he alleged in an interview to journalist Karan Thapar in 2023.
One Haryana BJP leader said, “Malik attempted to fill the void of a Jat leader, but he was outspoken, and when he was removed from Jammu and Kashmir, the relationship between the BJP and Malik soured.”
Later, he was moved to Goa, becoming the 18th governor, and also served as the 21st Governor of Meghalaya, until October 2022.
However, he continued his attack on the BJP. In a speech as Meghalaya Governor, Malik stated, “Two files were presented to me in J&K. One was related to Ambani, and the other to a senior RSS functionary. A secretary informed me that these were fraudulent files, but he also mentioned that I could receive Rs 150 crore for each of the two deals. I declined the offer, asserting, ‘I have come with five kurtas and will leave with them.” Following the speech, which sparked considerable controversy, a CBI inquiry was initiated.
In Goa, he accused the Sawant government of widespread corruption and claimed he was ousted as Governor for highlighting the alleged corruption. “I am a Lohia-ite; I have spent time with Charan Singh, and I cannot tolerate corruption,” he remarked, adding that he had informed the Prime Minister Modi about an alleged scam related to the door-to-door distribution of ration. He was speaking in an interview to India Today in 2021.
In later years, Malik’s attacks on Modi were quite direct. During an interaction with Rahul Gandhi during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he slammed the government on the farmers’ protests and the Agniveer scheme.
“If you do not remove him (Modi) this time (in 2024), he will destroy farming, and farmers will abandon their land. He intends to hand it over to the corporates. That is their goal,” Malik said, adding, “They will eliminate farming. They have already undermined the Army by introducing the Agniveer scheme. Who would be willing to sacrifice their life for such a brief period as Agniveer?”
In January 2022, Malik condemned the Prime Minister in a speech at Dadri in western Uttar Pradesh. “When I went to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the issue (farmers’ protests), I ended up arguing with him within five minutes. He was extremely arrogant. When I informed him that 500 of our own (farmers) had died… he responded, ‘Did they die for me?’”
In one of his last long posts on 7 June, written from his hospital bed in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi, Satypal Malik said: “When I was Governor (of J&K), I was offered bribes of Rs 150 crore, but like my political mentor, the farmer’s messiah, the late Chaudhary Charan Singh-ji, I worked with honesty, and my integrity could never be shaken.
“When I was Governor, the farmers’ movement was also ongoing, and I raised the farmers’ demands while holding the post without any political greed or temptation.
“The government is trying to frame me in false charge sheets by showing me the fear of the CBI. The tender they want to implicate me in was one I personally cancelled. I had informed the Prime Minister-ji myself that there was corruption in this matter, and after informing him, I cancelled that tender myself. After my transfer, this tender was executed with someone else’s signature,” he said, referring to a CBI charge sheet against him for links to alleged corruption in a hydroelectric project in the Kishtwar district of Jammu.
The post ended with: “I want to tell the government and its agencies that I come from the farmer community; I am neither one to fear nor one to bow down.”
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: CBI charges J&K ex-governor Satyapal Malik, 6 others in Kiru power plant kickbacks case
