A casual conversation between Rahul Gandhi and former governor Satya Pal Malik has given much deeper insights into the functioning of the BJP government and the persona of Prime Minister Narendra Modi than political critiques can offer these days.
Besides reiterating his oft-repeated charge that Modi intended to use the Pulwama tragedy to hijack the 2019 general election, Malik said during the conversation that the Prime Minister was interested only in perpetuating his power rather than public welfare, wanted to hand over agriculture to corporate houses, destroyed the army with the Agniveer scheme, vitiated the education system by appointing undeserving RSS-linked persons, misled people by whipping up religious passions and controlled the narrative through the media.
Though Rahul has been working to dismantle Modi’s carefully crafted image of a strong nationalist, an insider endorsing the Opposition’s perception of the Prime Minister as an opportunist who nurtured crony capitalism and can do anything to retain power could be damaging in electoral terms just before the critical electoral battles. Malik went so far as to declare that Modi can’t win the 2024 election come what may.
Malik, who has turned hostile towards the government, was a senior leader of the BJP and enjoyed a personal rapport with the Prime Minister. He was so important as to be appointed the governor of Jammu and Kashmir during the most critical phase when Article 370 of the Constitution had to be struck down. Malik was not sacked even as he levelled serious charges of corruption against BJP functionaries in Kashmir as well as Goa, and was instead transferred to Meghalaya.
The video of the conversation that happened a few days ago at Sonia Gandhi’s 10,
Janpath residence, where Rahul lives at present, was released on Wednesday. As Rahul broached the topic of Pulwama, Malik said: “I don’t say they (the Indian government) did it. But they ignored the security concerns
and wanted to use it for electoral gains. I told him (Modi) the tragedy happened because of lapses on our part but he asked me to keep quiet. Ajit Doval also called to warn me against talking about it.”
Malik said aircraft was denied for airlifting the CRPF personnel and the route was not sanitised for road travel. “The car loaded with explosives was roaming around for 10 days. The explosives had come from Pakistan and there was an apprehension of an attack. During the 10km stretch, there are eight to 10 link roads. None was closed. There is a norm that the link roads are blocked till the convoy passes but that was not done. I wanted responsibility fixed; heads should have rolled. Nothing happened.”
He added: “The Prime Minister intended to use the tragedy for elections by whipping up passions against Pakistan. He did Balakot (surgical strike) and asked in his speech whether votes can be cast in the memory of Pulwama victims.”
Malik also said that there were attempts to suppress his revelations. “TV channels were told not to show the interview I gave to Karan Thapar about Pulwama. The encounter of Atiq Ahmed happened to ensure my interview is not discussed.”
Rahul too contended that the Atiq Ahmed encounter was a diversionary ploy.
Referring to the farmers’ movement, Malik said: “If you don’t remove him (Modi) in 2024, he will completely destroy agriculture. Input costs are rising and MSP (minimum support price) is not a law. Farmers will abandon their farms and he will facilitate corporate takeover. He has already destroyed the armed forces with Agniveer. Who will sacrifice his life for a four-year job?”
When Rahul prodded him by saying that they try to destroy all the institutions, Malik said: “All the appointments of vice-chancellors at central universities have been done on the basis of association with the RSS. You can’t get a job without an RSS link. Those who are not good enough to become principal of inter-college have been made vice-chancellor”.
Rahul too agreed that the focus was on control, not quality of education.
Malik described Manipur as an example of governance failure. He recalled how
Adani had monopolised food-grain storage capacity that can allow him to manipulate prices, how Modi hypes up every occasion to take political mileage, how the CBI-ED
are misused and how he built the new Parliament building only to ensure his name in history.
When he said it is only a matter of six months before Modi would be ousted, Rahul said: “If you go to the ground, there is strong dislike (for the government).”
Rahul said the fight was ideological, not political, between the RSS worldview and Gandhian philosophy.
Malik supported him, saying: “Gandhi understood the country better than everybody else. India cannot survive without liberal politics.”
He insisted that the Opposition must explain to the people the ideological nuances and argued the people had now understood the reality and were not swayed by the mainstream media any more.