New Delhi: With opposition citing its remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi Meghalaya Governor Satyapal Malik said on Monday he praised PM’s move to withdraw the three contentious farm laws and claimed “PM is on right track”.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Malik maintained that his remarks quoting Union Home Minister Amit Shah had been “misconstrued” and “Shah did not make any comment on the Prime Minister” but had “asked me to keep meeting people and try to convince them”.
“Actually, Amit Shah had asked me why do I keep making statements? But when I told him the government had to find a middle path for the farmers and cannot let them die, he was very understanding. He understood the issue too,” he said.
On Modi, Malik said Monday: “I publicly appreciated and praised the PM for the step he has taken for the farmers. When he was the Chief Minister (of Gujarat), he was pro-farmer and wanted MSP to be given statutory status. But after becoming the Prime Minister, he was misguided. Still, when he realised that the farmers did not support the laws at any cost, he had the heart to withdraw it and apologise. That shows his large-heartedness. He is on the right track now.”
Recollecting that the government had accepted the stand of a parliamentary team led by him on the land acquisition Bill during its first term, he said: “Amit Shah had made me the head of the panel… I knew he was capable of sorting out things with the Prime Minister and with the farmers.”
Malik, who earlier criticised the Prime Minister and the BJP government over the farm laws and demanded their withdrawal, had alleged at a function in Dadri in Haryana that Modi was “arrogant” when he met him to discuss the farmer protests.
Malik said he was always “conscious of the fact that there is great synergy between Amit Shah and Prime Minister and both work well together”.
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