‘You played Holi with Pulwama martyrs..’: Owaisi lashes at Satya Pal Malik

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi took a dig at the former governor of Jammu & Kashmir Satya Pal Malik over his silence on the 2019 Pulwama attack-related security lapses during his tenure in the Union Territory (UT). Malik has recently alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him to ‘stay quiet’ and used it while campaigning for the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign.

In a video clip shared by AIMIM on their official Twitter handle, Owaisi remarked that Malik stayed silent to save his job. “What kind of love do you have for India Satya Pal Malik? To save your position, you played Holi (Hindu festival of colours) with the blood of our martyrs,” Owaisi said.

In 2019, 40 CRPF soldiers lost their lives at Lethapora, Pulwama district when their convoy was hit by a vehicle filled with explosives. It was a suicide attack. Thirty-five soldiers were reportedly injured.

Attacking Malik, Owaisi claimed that the former J&K governor had failed in his duties and is now acting ‘truthful’ for political gains.

“You should have come out and revealed the truth soon after the attack took place. But you did not utter a single word because you were in love with your position,” Owaisi alleged.

Owaisi further alleged that Malik’s silence spoke volumes about how much the latter wanted Narendra Modi to come back to power in 2019. “When the Pulwama attack happened, the entire country condemned the attack including me. But you chose to remain quiet. Where did your so-called patriotism go then? You did not speak the truth at that time because you wanted Modi to win the Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

In an explosive interview with The Wire, Satya Pal Malik made allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi knew about the security lapses in Pulwama attack but asked him to stay quiet. Malik also that Modi did not care about the state of corruption in the country. “Mein safely keh sakta hoon Prime Minister ko corruption se bahut nafrat nahin hain” (‘I can safely say the PM has no real problem with corruption’),” he told senior journalist Karan Thapar.

His interview created strong reactions from Opposition parties and activists.

Soon after the interview, Malik was summoned by the CBI for an alleged insurance scam. While many believed these were the aftershocks created by the interview, Union Home Minister Amit Shah maintained that there was no relation of the summons and Malik’s allegations against the BJP-led government.

“According to my information, he (Malik) has been called a second or third time. An investigation is underway, some new information or proof must have come to light and he has been called for the third time. There is no truth in this that he has been called for speaking against us,” Shah said at the recently concluded Karnataka Roundtable organised by India Today.

“Why is not the soul awoken when you are in power…the credibility of such remarks should be seen by people, journalists…if all this is true, why was he quiet when he was Governor..these are not issues of public discussion. I want to say to the people of the country that the BJP-led government hasn’t done any such thing which needs to be hidden. If some remarks are made for personal, political self-interest after leaving us, those should be evaluated by the people, media…,” Amit Shah had said.