Navjot Singh Sidhu's adviser Malvinder Singh Mali quits after row over his Kashmir comments

Under fire for his controversial comments on Kashmir, Malvinder Singh Mali on Friday quit as adviser to Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu. However, Mali did not term it as a “resignation”. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Mali said, “I humbly submit that I withdraw my consent given for tendering suggestions to Navjot Singh Sidhu”. Mali, in another Facebook post, claimed that the question of his resignation does not arise as he never accepted the post. Neither accepted any post, nor resigned from any post, Mali said in a post in Punjabi. Amid a power tussle in Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had asked Sidhu on Sunday to “rein in” his advisers after two of them made “atrocious” comments recently on sensitive issues like Kashmir and Pakistan. AICC general secretary Harish Rawat, who is in charge of Punjab affairs, had also said that the two advisers need to go. Sidhu on 11 August had appointed Mali, a former government teacher and political analyst, and Pyare Lal Garg, a former registrar of Baba Farid University of Health and Sciences, as his advisers to seek their wise counsel. In a recent social media post, Mali had waded into the issue of revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. He had reportedly said if Kashmir was a part of India, then what was the need to have Articles 370 and 35A. He had also said, Kashmir is a country of Kashmiri people. Garg, another adviser of Sidhu, had reportedly questioned the chief minister’s criticism of Pakistan. The chief minister had warned against such “atrocious and ill-conceived comments that were potentially dangerous to the peace and stability of the state and the country”.