Satya Pal Malik says PM Modi was 'arrogant' when he raised farmers' deaths; Congress balks

Stirring yet another controversy, Meghalaya governor Satya Pal Malik claimed that PM Modi had arrogantly dismissed the news of 500 farmers' deaths in protests when he raised the issue. In a video, which has gone viral on Monday, Malik is heard saying that PM Modi had questioned 'did they die for me?'. Addressing reporters in Haryana's Charkhi Dadri, Malik is further heard saying that Home Minister Amit Shah termed the PM 'mad'.

Satya Pal Malik terms PM 'arrogant'

"When I met PM Modi on the farmers' issue, I fought with him within 5 minutes. He was very arrogant. When I said that 500 farmers have died, he asked 'Did they die for me?'. I said that yes, you are king because of them. He told me to meet Amit Shah," said Malik.

He added, "When I met Amit Shah, people have made him (Modi) mad. You don't worry, Satyapal. Keep meeting us. Someday he will come to his senses".

Shocked at the language Malik used against PM Modi, Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the contempt with which constitutional authorities were speaking about each other. Furthermore, he tagged the Prime Minister asking 'Is it true?'. Congress's official Twitter handle also highlighted 'vanity', 'cruelty', and 'insensitivity' from Malik's speech, stating that these words describing PM Modi were a matter of concern for democracy.

Malik & BJP

Malik had been urging the government to guarantee MSP to protesting farmers via legislation and resolve the issue. He questioned the government's hesitancy in doing so adding that the farmers will compromise for no less. Last year, he had backed the farmers' protests urging the Centre to start talks with them.

Warning that a prolonged protest may end in political assassinations, he said, "If the protest continues like this. then in the long term, BJP will lose out in western UP, Rajasthan and Haryana". Lamenting that he could not bear to see the plight of the farmers, he said that he was unafraid to speak his mind. "If the government thinks I am harming them then I will step aside," he added.

Malik was dogged with controversies since 2018 when he dissolved the Jammu-Kashmir assembly citing extensive horse-trading, the impossibility of forming a stable government after BJP pulled out of the Mehbooba Mufti government. Later, he oversaw the bifurcation of J&K and the revocation of Article 370. But he was later transferred to Goa as the Governor, while Girish Chandra Murmu took his place. In Goa too, Malik ran into trouble after criticising the Pramod Sawant govt and was transferred to Meghalaya as Governor on 18 August, 2020.