NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi hid key facts from his public about the Pulwama terror attack that claimed dozens of paramilitary troops in the Indian-illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in February 2019, said a former governor of the disputed region.
Satya Pal Malik told a media outlet in an interview that he immediately realised that Modi wanted to use the attack to blame neighbouring country Pakistan to the benefit of his government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In a wide-ranging interview with Karan Thapar of The Wire, published Friday, Malik also criticized corruption under Mr Modi’s watch. “I can safely say PM Modi has no real problem with corruption,” he held.
Malik was governor of the disputed region during the Pulwama attack and the scrapping of Article 370 in August that year. He said the Indian PM was “ill-informed” and “ignorant” about Kashmir. He said Modi asked him not to speak about the lapses at the home ministry, which led to the deadly incident.
Malik revealed that the attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Pulwama was due to “incompetence” and “carelessness” by the Indian system, specifically the police force and the home ministry. He gave details of how the CRPF had sought aircraft to transport its personnel, but the home ministry declined the request.
More importantly, he said he raised all of these lapses directly when Modi called him from outside Corbett Park, shortly after the Pulwama incident. He said Narendra Modi told him to keep quiet about the incident and not tell anyone.
Separately, Malik added, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval also asked him to keep quiet and not talk about the incident. He said he immediately realised that Modi’s intention was to put blame for attack on Pakistan and take electoral advantage for the incumbent government and the BJP.
Former governor of the disputed region also said that there was grave intelligence failure in the Pulwama incident, as the car carrying 300 kgs of RDX explosives had allegedly come from across the border but kept travelling around the roads and villages of the India-held Jammu and Kashmir for 10-15 days without being intercepted and without anyone knowing.
“Modi not concerned about corruption”
Speaking about India’s PM Modi, Malik said he is not at all concerned about corruption. He told the interviewer that he was sacked as governor of Goa in 2020 and was sent to Meghalaya because he had brought to the PM’s attention several corruption cases, which, he added, the government chose to ignore rather than tackle.
Narendra Modi is serving as the 14th prime minister of India since May 2014. He also allowed Gujarat 2002 anti-Muslim riots in which more than 1,000 people were killed. The riots began after around 60 Hindu pilgrims died in a train blaze. Modi allegedly said that the Hindus should be allowed to vent their anger.
