‘Don’t Mess With Farmers’: Malik Tells Centre

Satyapal Malik has been vocal about the issues related to Jammu and Kashmir, where he was the governor before the state was divided into the two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir

Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik said on Friday that if farmers’ demands are not met, they may try to get what they want through violence.

“My advice to Delhi is don’t mess with them, they are dangerous people,” Malik said in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur at an event, where he also claimed he is not scared of losing his post for raising farmers’ issues.

“Farmers will take what they want. If it is not given through talks, they would take it through a fight (‘ladai’). They will get it through violence if not through a fight,” he said.

“They cannot be muzzled. They know how to get their demands met. If these demands are not met, they would again resume their agitation,” he said referring to the farmers’ year-long stir against the Centre’s farm laws.

Malik, who had earlier criticised the Centre and PM Narendra Modi over the handling of the farmers’ agitation, said there was always a chance that he will get a “call from Delhi” if he talks about farmers.

“I live in Delhi in a one-and-half room house, that is why I could mess (‘panga le saka’) with Modi over the farmers’ issue,” the Governor said.

“I don’t have any enmity with the Centre but I can leave my post for the farmers,” he said.

Malik repeated his earlier remark, saying when he met the PM over the farmers’ issue in the past, they had a fight in just five minutes.

“I told him that the Sikhs and Jats do not forget. You must send them with something. They had remembered Indira (Gandhi) as well,” he said in an apparent reference to the former PM’s assassination.

Earlier too, he has made remarks against the PM and the Centre over the farmers’ issue.

At an event in Haryana earlier this month, he had claimed that his friends advised him not to criticise the BJP government as he could be made the President or Vice President if he kept quiet.

Malik had then asserted that he “doesn’t care about these positions”.

In January, he had claimed that when he went to meet the prime minister on the issue of farmers, Modi was “arrogant” and had a fight with him within five minutes. (PTI)