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Hans India
a day ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Malik's political journey: From loyalist to controversial critic
New Delhi: Veteran politician Satyapal Malik's five-decade-long political career spanned across multiple political parties and included several high-profile gubernatorial appointments before he transitioned into an outspoken critic of the very establishment he had served. He served as the governor of four states -- Bihar (2017), Jammu and Kashmir (2018), Goa (2019), and Meghalaya (2020). But his most impactful assignment commenced in August 2018, when he was named the governor of Jammu and Kashmir. The tenure saw two significant events -- the 2019 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives, and the August 5, 2019 revocation of Article 370 and the division of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Malik was the last governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Malik, 79, who had been hospitalised for some time, passed away in a Delhi hospital on Tuesday, which marks the sixth anniversary of Article 370 revocation. Though he rose to prominence as a loyalist in the BJP, his recent years have been characterised by his vociferous condemnation of the central government's policies, reworking his public image from that of a seasoned administrator to that of a vocal dissident. From J-K, he had been relocated to Goa, where his relationship with the state government soured as he was openly critical of its COVID-19 response and accused it of corruption. His term in Goa came to an abrupt halt and he was posted to Meghalaya, his final assignment. On retirement from governorship, he publicly confronted the central government over crucial matters, which included a contention that the Pulwama attack was an outcome of governmental indifference, and vocally backed the farmers' protests against the three central laws, contending that the government had not listened to them. During his last days of life, Malik was also named in the CBI chargesheets filed in May this year in connection with the alleged corruption in the Rs 2,200 crore Kiru Hydro power project. He strongly refuted the charges from his hospital bed, calling it "political vendetta". Malik was born on July 24, 1946, in the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. His political journey started as a student leader with socialist ideology but his career was later characterised by party hopping as he switched from the Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD) to the Congress, then the Janata Dal and finally the BJP. The Jat leader was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 1974 on Charan Singh's BKD party. Malik was elected twice to the Rajya Sabha -- from 1980 to 1986 and then from 1986 to 1989 -- before he decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections on the Janata Dal ticket. He won from the Aligarh parliamentary seat. The then VP Singh government appointed him as the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism. After the fall of the VP Singh government and the subsequent turmoil in the Janata Dal, Malik switched to the BJP, where he became a party vice-president and also acted as in-charge of its Kisan Morcha (farmers' cell).
Mint
2 days ago
- Politics
- Mint
Governor, politician, and farmers' ‘voice': 5 facts about Satyapal Malik you should know
Satyapal Malik, the former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, passed away on 5 August after a prolonged illness at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the national capital. Malik was 79. Malik, hailed by many as the 'voice' of farmers, spent the last few years of his life in controversies, including a corruption case handled by the country's premier investigation agency – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Malik—a Jat leader who has been with both the Congress and the BJP—oversaw the abrogation of Article 370, granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 as the governor of the erstwhile state. As fate would have it, Malik died on Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the move taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in its second term. After his stint in Jammu and Kashmir, Malik served as Governor of Goa and Meghalaya, too. Malik was born in 1964 in Hisawada village of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. Malik pursued a Bachelor of Science and LLB degrees from Meerut University. Malik entered active politics in 1965-66 as a student leader and served as President of the Meerut College Students Union and the Students Union at Meerut University, which is now known as Choudhary Charan Singh University. Malik was inspired by the socialist ideology of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia. Malik was first elected to any public office as a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, as a member of Charan Singh's Bharatiya Kranti Dal. Later, after the formation of Bharatiya Lok Dal, he joined the party and became the general secretary of Lok Dal. 'The news of the passing of the vocal voice of the country's farmers and former Governor Shri Satyapal Singh Malik Ji is extremely saddening. May God grant peace to his soul. My deepest condolences to the grieving family and supporters. Om Shanti!' Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said in a post on X. Priyanka's brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he will always remember Malik s a person who, 'until his last moment, fearlessly spoke the truth and advocated for the interests of the people.' In 1980, Malik entered the Rajya Sabha and later briefly joined the Congress in 1984. He resigned in 1987 over the Bofors scandal and co-founded the Jan Morcha with VP Singh. In 1989, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Aligarh as a Janata Dal candidate and briefly served as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the VP Singh government. Malik joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2004 and served as its National Vice President until he was appointed Governor of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2018. Malik also had his share of controversies. While he courted controversies through his statements as Governor of different states, he was also the Centre of graft investigations by the CBI. Incidentally, Malik had flagged the graft case in the first place. In May, the CBI filed a chargesheet against seven people, including Malik, in a case of alleged corruption in the award of a contract for a hydel project in Kishtwar district. The agency had earlier questioned Malik as a witness. In fact, it was on Malik's allegations that the case was first registered in 2022. In October 2021, two years after leaving office as Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Malik claimed he had been offered ₹ 300 crore in bribes to clear two files. 'One of the secretaries told me that these are shady deals, but he can get ₹ 150 crore each. I told him that I had come to J&K with five kurta-pajamas and would leave with that,' Malik said at an event in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. In November 2018, Malik, the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir, had famously blamed a state holiday for not receiving PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti's fax staking claim to form the government. Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had faxed a letter to Malik's office declaring a joint bid by her People's Democratic Party and the National Conference, aided by the Congress, to form the government in the erstwhile state, then under the governor's rule. I told him that I had come to J&K with five kurta-pajamas and would leave with that. Hours later, however, Malik, without acknowledging receipt of the fax, ordered dissolution of the Assembly, where the three parties hold 56 of the 87 seats. Malik claimed he had missed Mehbooba's faxed letter because nobody was in his office to receive it, as it was a holiday in the state on the occasion of Eid-e-Milad, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad.
Time of India
26-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
In 1988, Vajpayee flirted with the idea of joining V P Singh but realised the cost
. The man mourned by both Shah Rukh Khan and Vladimir Putin, and whose legacy has only grown since his death, is at the heart of Abhishek Choudhary's expansive biography of Atal Behari Vajpayee. In an interview with Neelam Raaj, the author, who has just released the second volume titled 'Believer's Dilemma,' reflects on his eventful life and poignant final years It's the centennial year of both Vajpayee and the RSS. Does the dilemma in the title allude to Vajpayee's complicated relationship with the Sangh Parivar? Yes. In phases of ascendancy, Vajpayee outgrew the RSS to become a national figure; in moments of crisis, he was pulled back into the fold by the Parivar's organisational muscle. Tensions sharpened in 1979, when he publicly blamed the RSS for the Janata govt's collapse. They floated the BJP in confusion, but the relationship remained convoluted. The title also gestures beyond Vajpayee- to broader dilemmas in the right-wing ecosystem: the tension between power and responsibility versus ideological purity. It also hints at the predicament of the average Hindu believer: how to inhabit one's religious identity without surrendering to its chauvinistic articulations. You call Vajpayee a 'classic doublethinker'... Only in a specific context. Vajpayee saw himself as both a swayamsevak and a democrat and convinced himself the two were not only compatible but complementary: that a gentle kind of Hindutva was the only sustainable model of secularism. Flip the conviction slightly, and yes, one could call him a classic doublethinker. But that tendency isn't unique to him. Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Ambedkar too had moral dilemmas, but not this kind of double-speaking. Yet, the same traits that made Vajpayee a doublethinker also kept him consequential, while more progressive voices of his generation faded from public memory. You write that in 1988, Vajpayee came close to quitting the BJP- a moment V P Singh also alluded to in his memoir. But Vajpayee later laughed this off. How did you confirm this, and what brought him to that point? The late 1980s were a confusing, event-packed phase, and Vajpayee's worst period. Marginalised after the 1984 rout, he let Advani and Nagpur steer the party rightward. After Shiv Sena won Vile Parle in 1987, the BJP sought collaboration. Simultaneously, Bofors broke out and V P Singh was floating a new party. Vajpayee flirted with joining him. The BJP's founding president proposed a new party with select moderates. But he realised the cost: his political capital and emotional investment were tied to the Sangh ecosystem. If the alternative had been more robust, Vajpayee may have quit. I would not judge him. He would deny it later, but several people I spoke to confirmed that it did happen. You start the book by saying you wanted to set some facts straight. What were these myths? Let me mention three here. First, he wasn't as culpable in the 1983 Assam violence as some make out. Second, his obfuscations during the Ayodhya movement — especially his defence of the BJP in Parliament — helped spread the impression that the razing of Babri was a freak accident, despite much evidence to the contrary. Third, that the 1998 nuclear tests were a political stunt by the right-wing govt. In fact, by this time, with the CTBT deadline looming, nuclear testing had ceased to be a moral question for the political class. The Treaty was seen as the P5 (permanent members of the UN Security Council) freezing the nuclear apartheid status quo. Even the CPM thought the P5 were being hypocritical. Any stable govt might have tested. The protests from Communists and Congress later were mostly tactical. Why has Brand Vajpayee become bigger after his death? Because the ideological project he served has grown far bigger. We forget how often he was overshadowed by Congress prime ministers. In 2004, he completed a full term, helping turn India into a multi-party democracy. At this moment of paranoid polarisation, it's easy to forget that three decades ago, few believed that a party other than Congress could steer this mindbogglingly disparate country. There's a PR aspect too: the current dispensation wants his name on welfare schemes etc, minus his civility and sagacity. Some of the posthumous glow also comes from liberal nostalgia — for a more conciliatory era. But that, too, is selective memory. You describe how Vajpayee voted against the Indo-US nuclear deal he helped lay the groundwork for. What made him do that? It had everything to do with the BJP's desperation by mid-2008. As poll defeats piled up, survival instincts trumped foreign policy. Vajpayee, stroke-battered, wanted to help Advani bag the top job. If the UPA lost a trust vote, a bypoll might follow. If the NDA grabbed power, Advani told allies he'd renegotiate the deal. And so, the patriarch was stretchered into Parliament to vote against the deal — a pathetic final visit for India's longest-serving parliamentarian. You write with empathy, especially in the final chapters. How did you navigate the balance between biographical detachment and empathy? Navigating the balance is not my chief concern. I gather the material, then let it lead me; both take depressingly long. Yes, I try to understand my subjects on their own terms, especially when I disagree with them. Vajpayee's final years, stripped of voice and agency- were tragic, and I tried to capture that. In one of his last appearances, he wondered if a human being could ever truly liberate oneself. Asked to recite a poem, he said he'd turned into a kavi ka bhoot, a poet's ghost, the title of the last chapter. For his peers, his end also intimated the nearing of their own. The last bits are, therefore, about the tolls of ambition and the burden of history.
New Indian Express
11-07-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Substandard drugs: A bitter pill to swallow
Late last month, a paper in The Lancet Global by a team of researchers led by Maximilian J Wilfinger of the University of Notre Dame, US, reported that several chemotherapy drugs administered in sub-Saharan Africa had failed quality tests. About 20 percent of the drugs were either ineffective or had dangerous side effects. The products of 17 manufacturers failed tests. All but one are Indian firms. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism enlarged the story. Like earlier episodes in which paediatric syrups exported from India killed children overseas, this episode reminds us that merely having a volume lead in generics does not guarantee that India can be the 'world's pharmacy', as the government likes to advertise it. These were the big picture stories, but the incident also has a personal, human angle. Personal stories are of course anecdotal, but that does not automatically devalue them, because we are not doing statistics here. So, to get personal, a couple of years ago, someone close to me was diagnosed with an aggressive paediatric cancer. We mostly hear of research successes, and the general impression is that cancers are becoming curable, or at least manageable. Indeed, they are, but for many cancers, treatment has not improved in 30 years. For perspective, it means that the treatment of the cancer we're talking about has not changed since V P Singh was prime minister. A paediatric oncologist in Delhi told me a fundamental truth: 'Cancer doesn't affect only the patient, but the whole family.' That's especially true with difficult variants of the disease. The patient and family are suddenly cut off from normal life. It is as if an invisible wall stands between them and the majority who, thank heavens, have no experience of the disease. What divides these worlds is the idea that life is uncertain. Families with cancer know this; the rest of the world has gratefully forgotten it. Our legal wills still begin with the words, 'Since life is uncertain,' but we are fortunate. We take a course of pills to brush off diseases which were fearsome killers just two generations ago, like pleurisy and typhoid. After penicillin, we are no longer wired to think of untimely death as an everyday reality. Most of us feel it is unnatural to live with uncertainty.
Time of India
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Call for official celebration of VP Singh's birth anniv
1 2 Lucknow: A demand was made to officially observe former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh's birth anniversary by the govt, similar to celebrations for other former PMs and CMs. The appeal was made by general secretary Mandal Masiha VP Singh society, Abdul Naseer while chairing a programme organised to commemorate VP Singh's 94th birth anniversary in the city on Wednesday. Naseer urged the central and state govts to implement all recommendations of the Mandal Commission in full. Chief guest, former minister and Mohanlalganj MP R K Chaudhary said: "Singh's historic work on social justice must be enforced completely. Today, democracy is in danger, and it is our collective responsibility to protect it. Parliament is the temple of democracy and the Constitution, not the Sengol, should be its centrepiece." Speakers stressed that representation—not just reservation—is necessary across all sectors, including top-level services, private jobs, ownership, contracts and leases.
