Ex J&K Guv Satyapal Malik Passes Away
The former Rajya Sabha member was admitted to New Delhi’s RML Hospital where he died after a prolonged illness.
New Delhi:
Satyapal Malik, Jammu and Kashmir former governor and parliamentarian, died on Tuesday at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital here after prolonged illness at 1.12 pm. He was 79.
In his gubernatorial role at Jammu and Kashmir, Malik oversaw the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019. Coincidentally, he took his last breath on the sixth anniversary of the Centre's move.
Condoling his death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “My thoughts are with his family and supporters in this hour of grief. Om Shanti."
Once a trusted lieutenant, Malik had in recent years taken a confrontational stance against the government over the 2019 terror Pulwama attack. His outspoken political views on a host of issues, including the protest against farm laws soured his ties with the party leadership. Later, the CBI filed a chargesheet in a corruption case against him in an alleged bribery case of Kiru hydropower project in Kashmir.
A leader of socialist leanings, Malik had come close to the BJP and the Modi government made him Governor of Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, Meghalaya, and Odisha at different times, besides being a member of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in his long political career.
Malik attracted a lot of controversy after alleging that he was offered a bribe to clear files of two major projects including a hydropower project in Jammu and Kashmir and questioned the BJP-led Centre over issues related to farmers and the Pulwama terror attack, among others.
The CBI, which took over the probe into the two issues flagged by Malik, had filed a chargesheet against him in May this year in one of the cases about the `2,200-crore Kiru hydropower project. The chargesheet was filed after a three years of probe. In 2023, the CBI also grilled him for over five hours in this case.
Malik started out as an MLA in the 1970s. In his half-century as a politician, he jumped several parties. Hailing from Baghpat in western UP, he was first elected on a ticket of Chaudhary Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Kranti Dal.
In 1980, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Charan Singh-led Lok Dal. In 1984, he joined the Congress, which in turn sent him to the Rajya Sabha in 1986.
Malik had a longstanding history of diabetic kidney disease, hypertension, and other chronic health issues, including morbid obesity and obstructive sleep apnea, a hospital statement said.
Opposition leaders remembered Malik as one who fearlessly spoke the truth and showed the mirror to those in power.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the news of the demise of the “farmer-friendly” leader is extremely saddening.
“He continued to fearlessly and boldly hold a mirror of truth to those in power. My deepest condolences to the grieving family and supporters,” Kharge said in a post on X.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said, ““I will always remember him as a person who, until his last moment, fearlessly spoke the truth and advocated for the interests of the people,” Gandhi said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Malik became famous in Indian politics by “uttering some truths, which few dare to do”. She noted: “Satya Pal ji spoke bravely in support of Indian farmers' protests and in support of some unpleasant truth involved in case of the Pulwama attack. Such courage deserves our salute, and I offer that salute again, today. May his soul rest in peace.”