Mamata Banerjee on Monday cited the then Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik’s allegations to demand the “truth” about Pulwama and sought a Supreme Court-monitored probe by sitting judges, saying no one other than the highest court could conduct an unbiased investigation if “the highest chair” was involved.
“Regarding the claims made by Satya Pal Malikji, if the highest chair is involved, then it is only the Supreme Court that can conduct an impartial investigation… by its active judges,” the Bengal chief minister said.
“I have total confidence in the Supreme Court; only the judiciary can save this country. We need to have an inquiry into what happened in Pulwama — only then will the people get to know the truth.”
Malik last week said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had shut him up with “tum abhi chup raho” when he, as then Jammu and Kashmir governor, had blamed the Centre’s lapses for the massacre of 40 CRPF personnel in the Pulwama terror attack of February 2019.
“…Startling revelations have been made by former governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satya Pal Malikji,” Mamata told a news conference at the state secretariat.
"In a recent interview with the media, Satya Pal Malik made important remarks regarding the Pulwama attack in 2019,” Mamata added. “What Satya Pal Malikji said is scary.... He claimed that the Centre... ignored the security of CRPF jawans. According to him, the Pulwama attack was an intelligence failure.”
In the interview with journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire news portal, Malik had re-ignited several questions that remain unanswered four years after the car bomb attack on a CRPF convoy.
“CRPF people asked for an aircraft to ferry their people because such a large convoy never goes by road…. They asked the home ministry… They refused to give… They only needed five aircraft, they were not given aircraft,” Malik said. “It was 100 per cent an intelligence failure.”
Mamata on Monday underscored that she had raised similar questions in 2019, while repeatedly reaffirming her faith in and respect for India’s jawans.
In 2019, Mamata had persistently questioned the timing of the Pulwama tragedy, asking whether the Centre had wanted to create a “war-like hysteria” with Lok Sabha elections round the corner.
She had demanded to know why such a large CRPF convoy was allowed to travel by road despite the Centre receiving intelligence about a possible terror strike.
She had also accused the Sangh parivar of using the tragedy to vitiate the communal atmosphere. Then too, she had sought a high-level probe into the Pulwama attack, and stern punishment for those responsible.
The saffron ecosystem had at the time dubbed her “anti-national” and accused her of being opposed to stern action against Pakistan because of her politics of “communal appeasement”.
“But since, at that time, it was a matter of 'country first', we didn’t want to say anything against the Union government,” Mamata said on Monday.
“However, the truth has come out today. The BJP government was in power in 2019, and it was the Centre’s fault that we have lost our jawans.”
