Guv Malik now talks of threat of transfer

Srinagar: Amid controversy over his decision to dissolve the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Governor Satya Pal Malik has now said that there is a threat of his transfer. Days after Malik said that had he looked to Delhi, he would have had to install a BJP-backed government of Sajad Lone, the governor on Wednesday let it out that the threat of transfer was hanging on him.
At a function organised to pay tributes to Congress leader and former minister Girdhari Lal Dogra on his 31st death anniversary here on Tuesday, he mentioned about the threat of transfer. “Girdhari Lal ji dedicated his life to the cause of the poor. As long as I am here, I will definitely come to pay my tributes to him… It (transfer) is not in one’s hands. I will not lose my job but the threat of transfer remains,” he said. Countering the perception that he acted at the behest of the Modi government, Malik at an event in Gwalior on Saturday said he chose to dissolve the J&K Assembly instead of obliging either side as he didn’t want to go down in history as a “dishonest” man.
“If I looked at Delhi, I would have had to make Lone’s Sarkar. I would have gone down in history as a corrupt man. I ended the whole issue. Whoever has to abuse will do so, but I am convinced that I did the right thing,” he said during a pre-convocation academic conclave of ITM University in Gwalior on Saturday. Though there has been no reaction from the BJP to the claim made by Malik, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah lavished praise on the governor for not being a stooge of the Centre.