Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked if his conversation with former Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Governor Satyapal Malik increased the workload of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Mr. Gandhi released a 28-minute long video of his conversation with the former Governor in which they discussed a range of issues: from the Pulwama terror attack to the protests against the farm laws to allegations that the Union government is favouring the Adani group.
Without naming anyone in particular, Mr. Malik said that the charges levelled by Mr. Gandhi with regard to the Adani group have percolated to the ground level.
“The charges that you [Mr. Gandhi] have made has stuck on to him. This won’t go away easily as it has reached every village. People say that the question you raised about ₹20,000 crore, that’s his. Otherwise, where such a huge investment come from?” Mr. Malik told Mr. Gandhi without naming anyone.
The Congress leader also refrained from naming anyone while sharing the video of his conversation on X (formerly Twitter). “Will this conversation force the ED-CBI to increase their running around?” Mr. Gandhi asked on the social media platform.
During the conversation, Mr. Malik repeated his claim that the Narendra Modi government may have erred by not providing five aircraft to transport the CRPF jawans and asserted that the BJP used the 2019 Pulwama terror attack for political gain.
“I have never said that those in power at that time were responsible for the attack but yes they used the attack for their political gain,” Mr. Malik said.
As many as 40 CRPF personnel were killed when a terrorist rammed his explosive laden car into their bus near Pulwama on the national highway between Jammu and Srinagar on February 14, 2019.
When queried by Mr. Gandhi regarding how such a large volume of explosives could come into the State, the former J&K Governor said, “It came from Pakistan but was never detected”.
Mr. Malik also alleged that efforts were made to curb his revelation regarding the events surrounding the Pulwama attack and its aftermath. “There were instructions from the government that the media should ignore. After that it got drowned by the killing of don-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed,” he said.
Responding to it, Mr. Gandhi claimed that the shoot-out was done order to divert attention from the revelations made by the former Governor about the Pulwama terror attack. “I told my sister that this [shoot-out] was done to divert attention,” Mr. Gandhi said.
In his conversation the former Governor also suggested the restoration of Statehood and holding elections in J&K.
“My opinion about Jammu and Kashmir is that you cannot keep it calm with the help of security forces and I suggest winning the hearts of the people of that place and after that you can do anything. The people over there are amiable,” Mr. Malik said, adding that abrogation of Article 370 had not hurt the people as much as depriving them of Statehood had.