Former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik passed away on Tuesday at the age of 79 after a prolonged illness.
He died around 1 pm at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, where he was undergoing medical treatment.
Malik served as the last Governor of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from August 2018 to October 2019. During his tenure, Article 370 was abrogated and the state’s special status was revoked on 5 August 2019 — a move whose sixth anniversary is being observed today.
He was later appointed Governor of Goa and subsequently served as the Governor of Meghalaya until October 2022.
Malik began his political career in the 1970s as a prominent socialist figure. Over the decades, he was associated with several political parties, including Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Kranti Dal, the Congress, and the V.P. Singh-led Janata Dal, before eventually joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2004.
He entered the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1974, representing Baghpat on a Bharatiya Kranti Dal ticket. He later served as General Secretary of the Lok Dal and was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in 1980 and again in 1989. His second term in the Upper House was as a Congress MP.
In 1987, disillusioned by the Bofors scandal, he resigned from both the Rajya Sabha and the Congress. He then launched his own political outfit, Jan Morcha, which was later merged with the Janata Dal in 1988. (AGENCIES)
