Omar, Mehbooba praise J&K gov for ignoring' Centre

Srinagar: Two former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, on Tuesday praised governor Satyapal Malik for his stopping the BJP and its “proxies” from forming the government in the state.

While Mr Abdullah, who is the National Conference vice-president, said he compliments the governor “for not looking to Delhi and for not taking their instructions, thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP and its proxies”, Peoples’ Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti termed Mr Malik’s step as “unprecedented”.

The governor had in a speech at the pre-convocation academic conclave at ITM University in Gwalior earlier on Tuesday said that Sajad Gani Lone of the Peoples’ Conference would have become the chief minister of J&K had he sought the opinion of New Delhi before dissolving the Assembly last week. “I want to reiterate it that I would have had to form a government of Sajad Lone had I looked up to New Delhi, but I didn’t want to go down in the history as a dishonest man,” he had claimed.

A Raj Bhavan spokesman in Jammu Tuesday evening sought to clarify that the governor, while taking the decision to dissolve the Assembly, had acted in an objective and impartial manner. “There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter and some news channels are misinterpreting the governor’s statement and putting them out of context to convey that there was pressure from the Central government,” the spokesman said.

Reacting to the governor’s statement, Mr Abdullah tweeted: “I really don’t know what to make of Governor Sb revelations in Gwalior. We know the BJP & its proxies were desperate to form a government through horse-trading & use of money but we’ve also never known a politically appointed governor going against the wishes of the Centre.”

In another tweet, he said: “My compliments to Governor Malik for not looking to Delhi & for not taking their instructions thereby stopping the installation of a government of the BJP & its proxies formed by horse trading, defections & use of money.”

Ms Mufti also chose Twitter to express herself. She said: “Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that Governor Sb refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly.”