‘No question of apology to Madhav’
NEW DELHI, Apr 15:
In the wake of former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik’s shocking revelations on the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, Congress Party today came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked him to break his silence as the matter is related to the National Security of the country.
In a recent interview to a news portal, Malik, who had served as Governor of several States, including J&K and Meghalaya, while mentioning about the Pulwama terror attack where 40 CRPF jawans were martyred, alleged that he was asked by the Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to refrain himself from speaking about the lapses which he had apprised in the aftermath of the attack.
Training guns on the BJP-led Government at the Centre, the Congress termed the interview of Malik “explosive” and posed volley of questions to the ruling dispensation.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Congress general secretary and in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh while referring to Malik’s interview said, “The matter is related to national security. After his revelation (on Pulwama), the nation wants to know what is the response of the Government.
Either initiate an action against him or give answer to the questions raised on Pulwama.”
Attacking the PM, the Congress MP said, “This matter is connected to Modi)”. The PM is directly being questioned. On many important issues, the PM has only one answer…. his silence. On China and Adani issue , he remained silent. Even on ‘black laws’, he was quite for a year and later he had to take back the farm laws.”
Minimum governance, maximum silence is the principle of this Government, he alleged.
The Rajya Sabha MP also accused the BJP of trying to “supress” the interview of Satyapal Malik.
Endorsing his party colleague, Pawan Khera who is the chairman of the Media and Publicity Department of the Congress, said, “This is an explosive interview. The allegations are very serious. It comes from a person who is a senior leader of a BJP, and was close to PM.”
Echoing a similar sentiment, chairperson of Social Media and Digital Media of Congress, Supriya Shrinate said, “He (PM) called Satya Pal Malik and asked what had happened. When he said it happened because of our failure, he was asked to keep his mouth shut. NSA Advisor Doval also asked him to remain silent.”
“Despite of intelligence inputs that such an attack might take place why the CRPF jawans request for five aircraft was turned down by the Home Ministry. Why did the Modi Government not gave approval of aircraft ? These 40 families of the martyrs want to know why they were not airlifted? ,” she asked.
Supriya also asked what is the status of the probe of 2019 Pulwama terror attack.
Meanwhile, Malik said there was “no question of apologising”, after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) national executive member Ram Madhav sent him a legal notice, accusing him of making “defamatory statements” and seeking an apology.
On Thursday, Madhav sent a legal notice to Malik, stating that in an interview to a YouTube channel on 8 April 2023, the latter made “untrue and defamatory statements to stay relevant in a political circle”.
Madhav also sought immediate issuance of an open and public apology from Malik within 48 hours of receipt of this notice, for the “mental agony and harassment faced by him”.
“You the addressee are well known in the political circles, however, lately owing your fading popularity and relevance, and to stay relevant in the social life of this country, for the sake of gathering public attention through sensationalism you have made certain untrue, defamatory and incriminating statements on the said YouTube channel in an interview on 08.04.2023 in conspiracy with the interviewer of a YouTube channel,” read the notice.
Malik said that there was no question of him apologising to Madhav, instead he would send a written response to the notice.
He added that someone may have “pressured him (Madhav) to send this notice”.
Meanwhile, with the Opposition seizing on Satyapal Malik’s comments to attack the Government, the ruling BJP cited his past remarks, including the one that mocked Rahul Gandhi as a “political juvenile”, and slammed him as the “disgraced Governor of Jammu and Kashmir”.
BJP’s I-T department head Amit Malviya tweeted an old remark of Malik, who has become a strong critic of the government in recent years, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the “best PM” for Jammu and Kashmir, to hit out at his “U-turn”.
“And before Congress minions get all excited about Satyapal Malik, their new found knight in the shinning armour, here is what he had to say about Rahul Gandhi. So, sit down,” Malviya tweeted, sharing a video of Malik.
Besides calling Rahul Gandhi a “political juvenile”, he is heard saying in the video that people will “beat him with shoes” during elections if they are told he (Gandhi) supports Article 370, which was nullified by the Modi Government.
Sharing a clip of the recent interview, in which Malik withdrew a controversial comment he claimed Home Minister Amit Shah had made, Malviya said Malik admitted to “lying and making up baseless stories on what Home Minister Amit Shah had said about Prime Minister Modi”.
“No one took him seriously even when he made these allegations back then. But it raises serious questions on his credibility,” he added.
Sharing another video, Malviya said, “Satyapal Malik, the disgraced Governor of J&K, tying himself in knots here.”(Agencies)
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