MEERUT, Aug. 6 -- The political journey of former governor and Union minister Satyapal Malik, 79, who passed away on Tuesday, began not in the corridors of Parliament but on the historic campus of Meerut College. A native of Hisawda village in Baghpat (then part of Meerut district), Malik's early foray into leadership was marked by his election as the first directly chosen student union president of Meerut College in 1969 at the age of 21 - a turning point that set the course for his public life. Before Malik's tenure, student leadership positions at the college were filled through indirect elections, with the 'premier' being nominated rather than elected by student votes. That changed in 1965-66, when Malik was chosen as the first 'premier'. When the student union elections were discontinued in 1967, Malik led a fierce student protest, culminating in a gherao of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in Lucknow and voluntary arrest by hundreds of students. This movement resulted in the reinstatement of direct elections in 1969 when Malik made history again by becoming the first student union president elected directly by students. Malik pursued his B.Sc. and LLB at Meerut College, which became his political nursery. His close associate and former MLC Jagat Singh recalls that during the Emergency, he, Malik, and Vedpal Singh were jailed together for their activism and later sent to separate jails on the basis of intelligence reports. He served as the governor of four states -- Bihar (2017), Jammu and Kashmir (2018), Goa (2019) and Meghalaya (2020). But his most impactful assignment commenced in August 2018, when he was named the governor of J&K. The tenure saw two significant events -- the 2019 Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel lost their lives, and the August 5, 2019 revocation of Article 370 and the division of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories- J&K and Ladakh. Malik was the last governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Malik's political roots run even deeper - he first gained prominence during the 1965-66 'Remove English, Promote Hindi' movement. Injured during a police lathicharge, Malik's leadership inspired a fiery student backlash that saw the local post office set ablaze. His rising popularity caught the eye of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, who inducted him into the Bharatiya Lok Dal along with Jagat Singh. According to Arun Vashishtha, who served as the student union general secretary in 1973-74, Malik was a widely respected student leader. "Even I used to seek political advice from him," he recalled. Malik's popularity translated into electoral success when he was elected MLA from Baghpat in 1974. He went on to serve two terms in the Rajya Sabha and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Aligarh, and became a minister in the Union government. After joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Malik was appointed governor of several states. He also played a vocal role during the 1973 Lata Gupta student abduction case in Meerut, where his leadership of a powerful student agitation led to police-imposed curfew across the city. Charan Singh, deeply impressed by Malik, once referred to him as his political heir. Malik remained close to Singh for years, until a fallout led to his expulsion from the party. In 2017, decades after his college days, Malik returned to Meerut College as the Governor of Bihar to attend its 125th anniversary celebrations....