A well-known politician and former Governor, Satya Pal Malik, has died. He was sick for some time. I had known him from Meerut College, Meerut where in 1967 I was teaching English to postgraduate students and Satya Pal Malik was studying law. He was a students’ union leader. We met as adversaries , he representing a students’ issue and I representing the college as a Proctor under principal Puri who a year later became the first vice chancellor of Meerut University. We soon became friends.
A few months later, English was made optional by the Sanyukta Vidhayak Dal ( SVD) government headed by Chaudhari Charan Singh . The then Jan Sangh ( now BJP) was a part of the government. The party was in favor of doing away with English as a compulsory subject in the colleges. And it was a SVD manifesto promise that English will be made an optional subject if the SVD came to power. Jan Sangh got the education portfolio and its Minister Ram Prakash lost no time to make English an optional subject. As a result, thousands of students dropped English as a subject. And overnight hundreds of teachers of English in the colleges of the State of Uttar Pradesh were retrenched. I was one of them. So, at the end of the year 1967 I moved out of Meerut. For some time, I had occasional contact with Mr. Malik. But when in 1973 I moved to Ludhiana in Punjab I lost touch with him.
I have known him as a fearless champion of students’ rights. He was a popular students leader because of his determined stand in favor of students. And it was decades later evident in his stand for the farmers. He risked his political career but stood for what he felt was right . Even when the BJP government harassed him he stood his ground.
I admired the man for what he was- a courageous person who never hesitated to call a spade a spade. There are very few like him to be found in the self-interest- driven world of politicians today. Hats off to Mr. Satya Pal Malik. He will always be an inspiration to the young people who want to follow the path of righteousness and defend the weak and the oppressed against tyranny of the system and the rulers.
Mr. Malik’s body is gone but he lives on in his ideals which all right-thinking people will continue to cherish.
Rest in Peace!