The Bharatiya Janata Party-appointed governor of Tripura, Tathagata Roy, has sparked off a controversy on Twitter with his comments calling the people who assembled for Yakub Memon's funeral procession "potential terrorists".
Intelligence shd keep a tab on all (expt relatives & close friends) who assembled bfr Yakub Memon's corpse. Many are potential terrorists
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) July 31, 2015
Governors ought to be concerned abt security of state. Intelligence keeping tab on Yakub's mourners is preventing terror. Better than cure
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) July 31, 2015
When I suggested 'intelligence keeping a tab',I mentiond NO COMMUNITY. So how come I'm accused of being 'communal bigot'? Guilty conscience?
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) July 31, 2015The reaction to this was swift and outrage followed at the fact that a Governor, a man supposedly above politics was tweeting views which were decidedly controversial.
Seriously: this Tripura guv deserves presidential reprimand. Since @RashtrapatiBhvn sworn to protect constitution, Pranab can't ignore this
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) July 31, 2015
Loose talk from MP's and Ministers is bad enough, but for a Governor to speak like this is truly appalling: http://t.co/7bAR87uKqt
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) July 31, 2015
State Governor of Tripura advocates for religious profiling and targeted communal surveillance. https://t.co/6pcB8xvlEY
— Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) July 31, 2015 Roy was, however, unfazed by this.
Governors ought to be concerned abt security of state. Intelligence keeping tab on Yakub's mourners is preventing terror. Better than cure
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) July 31, 2015
Oh,what an explosion! I am gratified! But consider seriously: 1.Did I talk abt any community? 2. Did I ask for action or just keeping tabs?
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) July 31, 2015This isn't the first time, thought, that Roy, ex-president of the West Bengal unit of the BJP, has been accused of communal bigotry on Twitter. Some of his earlier controversial tweets range from commending someone because they "appreciate what the Hindus did" in Gujarat in 2002 to hoping that West Bengal will also “polarise” along communal lines.
Love Jihad
Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party never officially validated the existence of “Love Jihad” – the idea that there is an organised effort by Muslim men to convert Hindu women by making them fall in love with them – a number of party leaders have taken it up as a handy tool to rile up passions. Roy seems to be one of them.
Congrats UP BJP fr bringing issue of Love Jihad to the fore. We in West Bengal must perhaps do the same to save hapless gullible Hindu girls
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) August 24, 2014Later on when a user asked Roy to “approach women as individuals” and “let them decide”, he shot that suggestion down:
@sibhaskaran That is very idealistic and I congratulate you on your idealism. Unfortunately,life is not that simple.
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) August 24, 2014Unsurprisingly, Roy had no problems with the many calls for women to procreate in larger numbers in order to increase the Hindu population:
I realised in last few TV debates: a call to Hindu women to beget at least 4 children is equated to a call for riot! What nonsense is this?
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) March 20, 2015So taken up by this issue is he, that after a horrific case of violence in 2014, where a mentally-ill Muslim man was lynched in Kolkata on the suspicion of trying to steal a phone, all Roy could comment on was the number of children the murdered person had:
NRS lynching very unfortunate,bt ominous sidelight. Mentally unstable Korpan hd 4 kids plus 1 on the way. How mch further to Hindu minority?
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) November 19, 20142002 Pogrom
Tathagata Roy has some strong views on the Gujarat violence of 2002 and Modi’s role in it and he hasn’t been afraid to express them on Twitter.
@RSayak @sagarikaghose Indeed V-E-R-Y S-C-A-R-Y for rioters. Modi hs put the fear of God in thm. Since they burnt Hindu pilgrims at Godhra
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) April 5, 2014The most egregious tweet of Roy’s was where he expresses his views on Gujarat 2002:
@tani_sana One exception was Gujarat,2002. I'm glad you appreciate what the Hindus did then @AdityaRajKaul
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) March 23, 2015Given his views on the Gujarat Pogrom, it is no surprise that he wants his home state, West Bengal, to “polarise” as well:
Hindus of West Bengal: either chuck yr 'secular','politically correct' values and polarise. Or prepare to be either annihilated or converted
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) April 23, 2015Praise for muzzling Doniger
Roy commends the attack on Wendy Doniger’s academic study of Hinduism, The Hindus, in 2014, taking care to point out that doing what Doniger did is no longer “safe”. The incident had forced the withdrawal and pulping of all copies of the book.
But one result of a long struggle has escaped attention in the Doniger affair: It is no longer fashionable or even safe to abuse Hindu Gods
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) February 12, 2014Nehru, the murderer?
With his Twiter profile proudly proclaiming that his ideology is Hindutva, it is not surprising that Roy does not like Nehru. But to publicly accuse the first prime minster of murder is an extreme view even then.
@sarkar_swati Chacha Nehru took his revenge by sacrificing East Bengali Hindus and being instrumental in killing Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) November 14, 2014Since it was after he had expressed views like these that Roy was appointed governor by the Modi government in May 2015, it is maybe no small wonder that he has kept this up.
