‘Unholy alliance’: Guv Malik speaks out in defence of J&K assembly dissolution

Governor Satya Pal Malik, who has been roundly criticised by opposition parties for abruptly dissolving the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, defended his decision on Thursday, describing the last-minute political formations in the state as an “unholy alliance” that should not have been permitted to form a government in the state.

Malik insisted that he had not received Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti’s fax claiming support of political parties.“But even if I had, my decision would have been the same,” the governor told reporters at a media interaction.

On the timing of his decision to abruptly dissolve the assembly after waiting for five months, the governor said the six-month deadline for keeping the assembly in suspension was expiring next month. “Plus, it was a holy day. It was Eid,” he said, declaring that Mehbooba Mufti and others were free to approach the courts against the dissolution.

“These are those forces who don’t want grassroots democracy and when they felt they were beginning to lose control, they presented me with an unholy alliance. I couldn’t have allowed it. I have not taken any sides and have done what is good for the people of the J&K.), Malik said, according to news agency ANI.

Minutes before the Governor dissolved the assembly, he was sent two claims to form the government in the state. The first came from PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, who has the support of rival Omar Abdullah’s National Conference and the Congress. The second claim was that of People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone, who is backed by the BJP.

Malik added that both Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah had repeatedly asked him to dissolve the suspended assembly over the last few months.

“I have been saying it since day one of my appointment as Governor that I’m not in favour of any government formed in the state with underhand defection and horse trading. I would instead want that elections are held and selected government rules the state,” J&K Governor Satya Pal Malik speaking to ANI.

I’ve been receiving complaints for past 15 days of horse trading and that MLAs are being threatened. Mehboobaji herself complained that her MLAs are being threatened. The other party said there is planning of distribution of money. I couldn’t have allowed this to happen,” he said.

Late on Wednesday evening, Mehbooba Mufti had taken to Twitter when she could not get through to the Governor to stake her claim to form the government. “Have been trying to send this letter to Rajbhavan. Strangely the fax is not received. Tried to contact HE Governor on phone. Not available. Hope you see it @jandkgovernor,” she tweeted.

Less than an hour later, after having received the official communiqué regarding the dissolution of the state assembly, she tweeted, “In todays age of technology, it is very strange that the fax machine at HE Governor’s residence didn’t receive our fax but swiftly issued one regarding the assembly dissolution.”

Earlier, Malik told NDTV that he hadn’t felt the need to take the decision earlier as there was no immediate reason to dissolve it. “This was because no one came with a horrible proposition to form a government... Democracy was working, MLAs were getting funds. But when I saw danger inherent in such adventures, then I dissolved it,” he said.

He has also responded to complaints from Mehbooba Mufti that she wasn’t able to send him a letter to stake claim because the fax machine wasn’t working.

“Yesterday was Eid. There was no one in the Raj Bhawan to even give me food. She could have come to me the day before,” he told news channels.

“On a holiday, none was sitting next to the fax machine,” Malik said.

National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Thursday said that if any legal recourse had to be taken against the dissolution of the state assembly by Governor Satya Pal Malik, then the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP will have to take it. He said, “We hadn’t issued any letter of support so we don’t have any stand on this. We can’t challenge the dissolution of the state assembly, but the PDP can since they had sent out the letter to the governor. It is up to the PDP whether they want to challenge the governor’s decision in a court or not.”