Incumbent Goa Guv Satya Pal Malik appointed as Governor of Meghalaya

Goa Governor Satyapal Malik, who was critical of the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the BJP-ruled state, on Monday was transferred to Meghalaya.

The shifting of Malik to Meghalaya triggered criticism from Opposition leaders in Goa, who said he was transferred because he spoke "truth" on various issues mishandled by the Goa government like the pandemic and the Mahadayi river water dispute.

Malik will be replacing Tathagata Roy, who has completed his term and speculated to be fielded as a BJP candidate in 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal where the saffron party is hoping to dethrone Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.

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According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari will discharge the functions of the Governor of Goa in addition to his own duties.

Roy, who had was in the centre of a controversy last year when he supported a tweet by a retired army official calling for banning of Kashmiri goods following a terrorist attack on the CRPF convoy that killed 40 personnel, tweeted, "upon receipt of news from Rashtrapati Bhavan, I spoke to Satyapal Malikji, the new Governor-designate and welcomed him to Shillong. It may take him a little time to come here. I was supposed to have been relieved on 20th May. Now the end of the road is in sight!"

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Malik was first appointed the Governor of Bihar in 2017 and shifted to Jammu and Kashmir and the next year. He was the first career politician to be appointed as Jammu and Kashmir in 51 years and had famously claimed that he did not receive the letter faxed by the PDP staking claim to form the government as there were no officials present to check Raj Bhavan's fax machine, which was not working.

However last year, he was transferred to Goa last year after the state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories.

The 74-year-old politician has grabbed headlines in recent times after he criticised the Pramod Sawant government for its handling of the Covid-19 situation in the coastal state.

In what was seen as a direct confrontation with the BJP-led state government, Malik had last month said that complacency led to the Covid-19 spike in Goa.

“As far as the tests are concerned, Goa is doing very well, management too is fine. But what happened here is that we became satisfied too early when we shouldn’t have. We relaxed the lockdown, and now when the cases are rising we are locking down again...It has grown a lot and now we are doing it. There was an error of judgment,” he was quoted as saying last month.

He had also said that the “synergy” between ministers was lacking and that the response to the pandemic was being held back “due to political reasons”.

Opposition parties in Goa did not take the transfer kindly, saying Malik was shifted for speaking the "truth" on issues like the Covid-19 pandemic, environment and the Mahadayi river water dispute.

Goa Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat said, "the governor stood by truth, emotions and sentiments of every Goan on the core issues like Mahadayi water diversion by Karnataka, economic revival and austerity measures, besides the government's handling and management of the COVID-19 pandemic."

He said it was sad that an honest and upright person like Malik has been transferred at a time when Goa needed him the most.

Goa Forward Party (GFP) chief Vijai Sardesai said Malik spoke truth about the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the coastal state. "He had taken a strong stand on the Mahadayi issue and other austerity measures including opposition for new Raj Bhavan. He had called out the Goa chief minister for being uncultured," Sardesai said.

Sardesai also wondered how Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari was given additional charge of Goa, saying how can anyone justify that governor of a state (Maharashtra) with maximum number of Covid-19 cases and deaths being given the additional responsibility of another state.