SRINAGAR: The erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik, who oversaw the unmaking of Jammu and Kashmir as a state, has been shifted to Meghalaya for a new assignment as governor. He was Goa governor since November 2019, when he was shifted to pave way for the Lt Governor in Srinagar Raj Bhawan.
His transfer from Goa came within less than a year as Goa governor. In Goa, media reports said, Malik had “differences of opinion” with chief minister Pramod Sawant.
Malik lived with countless controversies as Jammu and Kashmir governor and once even suggested militants to kill the political leaders. He ran a campaign against the political class and the “corrupt” living in palatial houses with carpets. However, he was made “famous” in Srinagar by his fax machine in the 2018 fall when the political class in Kashmir had sought the revival of the democratic government in the erstwhile state. A day later, he dissolved the assembly.
Hindustan Times reported that in July, Malik, summoned FGoa Chief Minister to discuss his government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis. “When Sawant sought to downplay the meeting, Malik accused the chief minister of putting words in his mouth,” the newspaper reported. “Malik wrote a letter to Sawant opposing the construction of a new Raj Bhavan (governor’s house) “as irrational and imprudent” when the state is battling Covid-19 and reeling under financial crises. The letter followed Sawant’s move to go ahead with the construction.”
