New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government will end farming and has finished the Army by introducing the Agniveer scheme, former Jammu & Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik said in conversation with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
In a video released by the Congress on social media Wednesday, the two spoke on a range of issues, including Jammu & Kashmir, the 2019 Pulwama attack, caste census, the alleged Adani scam and the state of farmers in India.
Malik, who is also a farm leader from western Uttar Pradesh, criticised the Modi government over its policies towards farmers and the Army.
“If you don’t remove him (Modi) this time (in 2024), he will end farming and farmers will flee. He will give it to the corporates. That’s their intention,” said Malik, adding, “They’ll finish farming. They have finished the Army by bringing the Agniveer (scheme). Who will sacrifice their life for such a short period as Agniveer?”
Malik also alleged that all vice-chancellors appointed to central universities in the last year had connections with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
On his part, Gandhi expressed his concerns over the “killing” of institutions. “Be it the Army, government, bureaucracy, the Election Commission… When they lay their hands on it, they install their own people.”
‘अडानी मामले में आपने 20 हजार करोड़ रुपए का मुद्दा उठाया था।
ये बहुत बड़ा सवाल है कि इतना बड़ा इंवेस्टमेंट कहां से आया?’
पुलवामा, किसान आंदोलन, अग्निवीर और अडानी घोटाले जैसे गंभीर मुद्दों पर पूर्व राज्यपाल सत्यपाल मलिक जी के साथ @RahulGandhi जी की बातचीत।
पूरा वीडियो:… pic.twitter.com/zZovSc5cOo
— Congress (@INCIndia) October 25, 2023
Malik meanwhile also alleged that the Modi government’s promise to give the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers is not being implemented to help the Adani group. “They have betrayed farmers on the MSP. When they repealed farm laws, they promised the MSP. It hasn’t been done till date. Why? Because Adani has built huge godowns, purchased crops at a set price. Next year, their prices will rise and he will sell. If the MSP is implemented, a farmer won’t sell it to them cheaply.”
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Insurgency is back again in J&K
Speaking about Jammu and Kashmir, Malik accused the Modi government of using the Pulwama terror attack for political gains. Gandhi said the aftermath of Pulwama looked like a “show”.
“I got to know the martyrs were being brought to the airport. I went straight to the airport. They locked me up. I had to fight and get out. I was locked with a key,” he said, adding, “I felt as if a show was put on.”
Criticising the prime minister for not responding to his calls as the governor at the time, Malik said, “The day this incident happened, he was shooting at the Jim Corbett National Park. I tried to contact him a few times, but he wasn’t available. He called me around 5-6 pm and asked what happened.”
When Gandhi asked Malik his views on the current situation in the UT, the latter alleged “insurgency is back again” and that “terrorists are active”.
He also called for restoration of statehood in J&K. “Statehood should be restored immediately. (Abrogation of) Article 370 has not hurt them as much as taking away their statehood and making them as Union Territory has,” he said.
“I think that they made it a UT because they thought that the police would revolt (over abrogation of Article 370). But the police had been so faithful to the Indian government that even in the month of Eid, every policeman was on duty and no one asked for a leave. “
Malik has also served as a governor of Goa and Meghalaya, which he calls a punishment posting for “raising corruption issues in Goa”.
“The North-East was settled. They have troubled it,” said Malik, referring to the Manipur violence. Calling the situation in Manipur a failure of the government, he said, “The chief minister cannot do anything but he is not being removed.”
From ‘political juvenile’ remark to praise
While this time Malik appreciated Gandhi several times during the interview, he had called the latter a “political juvenile” in 2019 after the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K.
At the time, when several restrictions were imposed in the Union Territory, Malik’s administration did not let the Congress leader enter the UT, prompting him to call Malik’s administration “draconian”.
“Leaders of the Opposition & the press got a taste of the draconian administration & brute force unleashed on the people of J&K when we tried to visit Srinagar yesterday,” Gandhi had said at the time.
However, now when Gandhi said “many of the politicians have this issue that ‘I have to become the PM at any cost’ by compromising anything,” Malik replied, “Your strength, that nobody has, is that you don’t want anything. This fact knocks out the opponents.”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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